Encouraging news from the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH): underage drinking among America’s youth has reached record lows.
According to the study, around 1.5 million fewer American young people, between 12- and 17-years-old, admitted in a recent survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that they had consumed alcohol in some form during the past month.
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This encouraging trend shows that alcohol consumption among 12- to 17-year-olds in the past month have now declined by just over one third proportionally in the last decade and by 10 percent from 2012 to 2013.
Announcing the figures, Ralph Blackman, president and CEO of the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, emphasized his satisfaction at the encouraging development, adding his appreciation of the tremendous efforts made by parents, teachers, public officials, law enforcement and many other organizations who have combined to combat this alarming trend among America’s youth.
“These organizations will continue to make a meaningful, and, frankly, substantial impact on not only our youth, but also the future of the country as a whole, ” Blackman pointed out, warning that “There’s more work to be done, and more conversations between parents and kids need to be started.”
SAMHSA’s overview of the latest NSDUH results presented an overall encouraging picture of alcohol consumption among America’s youth, showing that it continued to decrease at record levels across all its measured criteria.
Binge drinking among youth has declined by 42 percent proportionally from 2003 to 2013, a decrease of more than one million among 12- to 17-year-olds, driven by a fourteen percent decline in binge drinking from 2012 to 2013 among America’s youth.
Partaking of more than five alcoholic beverages on the same occasion, or on five or more days in the last month, classed as heavy drinking, has declined by more than half in the last decade, a drop of around 359, 000 in the potentially vulnerable 12- to 17-year category.
