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Tiffany Meza

Mr. Powers

English 1302

10 April 2023

Alcohol use in adolescents

The argument compromised in this essay is the overly argumentized idea agreement as to why

adolescents should have the right to buy alcohol and consume at the age of 18, as in other

countries outside of the U.S. the use of alcohol and adolescents might grow overtime due to laws

prohibiting this usage, this gives a motive to adolescents and induces them into getting into

alcohol, almost like a dare. Many questions that can be asked as this argument takes play are,

why should adolescents be able to consume and obtain alcohol, what are the cause and effects to

adolescent alcohol purchasing, and how will adolescent drinking change the lifestyles of these

teens. The goal is to answer these intuitive questions with a sense of understanding as vice versa

the benefits from adolescent alcohol usage. The idea to stop social media from allowing young

adolescents from access to online advertisements and dealers is the crucial idea that is opposed in

this argument. Adolescents shouldn’t have to resort to illegal actions like these, rather an

adjustment to age laws should be made to discourage illegal activity. The statement assuming

one would think it is right to consume alcohol is opinionated and varied amongst people. This

argument is made to side with the demand for change in state laws prohibiting 18+ late teens to

acquire drinking rights as other controversial laws begin at 18, laws should be raised. This is

purely just an agreement and siding based on evidence as to why adolescent drinking laws

should be altered and processed on allowing 18-year-old adolescents to purchase alcohol in the

U.S. The topics on teens in school and lifestyle changes will be revised, as well as peer
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influence, and laws incorporated. After researching further this is how an objective argument is

conducted with the following information.

Teens in school and lifestyle

To start, the consumption of alcohol is distinctly popular amongst teens and late adolescents,

the probability that a grade of high school students being more likely to drink alcohol in their

early academic years is high with a percentage greater over the passing generations. Downshen

from Teenshealth states,

Just about everyone knows that the legal drinking age throughout the United States is 21.

But according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, almost 80% of

high school students have tried alcohol.

the lifestyles of these late teens can change from daily frequent drinking to broader events, or

even allow these adolescents to Transend into an older crowd as they grow into adults. there is a

statistical inquiry stating that drinking may cause corruption to adolescent life into adulthood. As

teens grow, they get marginalized into different areas of environments that allow them to find a

place in society, whether that be in high class, middle class, or low class standing. This standing

complicates the lifestyle choices one might make and encourage unlikely behavior in their adult

lives. This argument is mainly faced around parents warning their children when hanging around

with different groups of friends and controlling who they hang around with. This bothers the teen

and corrupts their way of living, which provokes them into doing the opposite of what their

parents say, it is a phycological response. This creates a whole different topic, peer influence.

Peer influence

Peer influence is the overall distinction around children acting out and doing things they are

unexpectedly doing; this causes great worry over parents and peers that notice these changes.
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There is a common assumption that when teens hang out with people that are known for doing

wrong things, they are automatically like them and join in on the misbehavior. This predicament

that adolescents are often seen partying and getting loose with their friends, connects the dots

amongst parents that notice their children may change in attitude and mindsets when they choose

to spend more time around different crowds and friends. Authors Chwedorowicz et al declares,

As early as from the first years of adolescence an increased sensitivity and vulnerability

to the effect of the peer social environment is observed, when there arises the need for

acceptance and group affiliation, associated with simultaneous achievement of autonomy

and distancing from parents and adults. (21)

This statement clarifies that adolescents are much more vulnerable to peer influence through

their worries on acceptance and value on said to be friendships that affiliate teens through each

other. This is a marginalized issue within young teens that feel the need to be a part of something

and make friends, even if they know they are not good for them. This is the trouble parents have

with teens that leads them to prohibit seeing these friends. One writer Gina Tome et al. defends

the argument on teen friendships saying, “On the other hand, having friends allows to share

experiences and feelings and to learn how to solve conflicts. Not having friends, on the other

hand, leads to social isolation and limited social contacts, as there are fewer opportunities to

develop new relations and social interactional skills.” (Tome 2012). Argumentatively teen

friendships aren’t always about the wrong doings but rather the life lessons learned throughout

these years. Judgement always comes first before finding out how people truly are, and in these

cases, judgement will always be the main assumption. Young teens should be able to experience

these emotional rides with the people they meet at their young ages in order to fully grow into a

mindful version of themselves in the future.

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Laws preventing usage

Fortunately, there are laws stopping this massive spread from becoming worldwide. Legal

laws in the United States declare that human beings must be over the age of 21 to obtain and

purchase alcohol (only in the U.S). One journal by Alexander C. Wagenaar says,

“The trend toward lower legal drinking ages stopped by 1975 as evidence began to

accumulate that lower the drinking age is resulted in an increase the alcohol related

problems particularly traffic accidents among the 18- to 20-year-old population” (206).

This supports argumentized inquiries, although rates have been found, educational systems and

officials have made it mandatory to process these incidents into learning projectiles and focused

on stopping these incidents from continuing. Another article on Teen Driving Risk by Kenneth H.

Beck et al. states that, “graduated driver licensing programs, which impose restrictions on when

teens are licensed and under what conditions they may drive, has been shown to reduce MVC

risk for young drivers.” (73). The argument that, adolescents should be able to drink and

purchase alcohol to overthrow law breaking and misbehavior against the laws surrounding this is

unjustifiable. Writers, Fertig, Angela R, and Tara Watson say that “debate over the drinking age

as a policy tool is re-emerging. In 2008, over 100 college presidents and chancellors from around

the country, including the presidents of Duke, Dartmouth, Tufts, and Ohio State, signed a

petition encouraging discussion about whether to reduce the drinking age to 18” (737). this gave

hope that changes were being made and attention was provoked from these higher officials.

Unless more people demand a change in overall definable laws, prevention is invariable. An

example is when researcher Paschall, Mallie J et al. found that,

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Local SH policies that include strict liability and civil penalties that are imposed

administratively may be associated with less frequent underage drinking in private

settings, particularly among adolescents who have already initiated alcohol use.

This means that social events and gatherings where adolescents have already been exposed to

drinking and substance usage from other situations, its unstoppable to control a whole generation

when consumptions have already taken place. This is where other laws come into play as others

point out controversial topics such as Gun control and the age prohibitions on being able to buy a

gun at the young age of 18. Too many controversial topics can be crossed when speaking among

these overly compensated issues.

Conclusion

Overall, the information gathered in this analytical argument was intended to agree with the

commonly debatable issue surrounding adolescent teen drinking rights and demanding a change

in laws and society views. While there are still many possibilities on why disagreements are

made in this topic, this research was intended by high popular demands on teens that feel

dragged down in political actions that feel ignored. Right now, it may not be much of worry to

our generation, but kids born in the 2000’s down are maturing scientifically quicker than those

born in the late 90’s as stated in an article by Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson and Stefanie

Mollborn, we find that, “hardship in several domains during childhood and adolescence is

associated with feeling relatively older and self-identifying as an adult in the late teens and

twenties.” This supports the claim that this generation is maturing quicker, and it is noticed. All

that is asked after this conducted essay is that more inclusion should be considered amongst late

teens and attention should be focused more on this generation being that an obvious shuffle will
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be constructed by the next decade and wave of officials. More changes need to be made and

federal officials need to compromise with the youth of this country.

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Works cited

Beck, Kenneth H., et al. “Teen Driving Risk: The Promise of Parental Influence and Public

Policy.” Health Education & Behavior, vol. 29, no. 1, 2002, pp. 73–84. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/45088048. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

Chwedorowicz, R., Skarżyński, H., Pucek, W., & Studziński, T. (2017). Neurophysiological

maturation in adolescence – vulnerability and counteracting addiction to alcohol. Annals

of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine, 24(1), 19-25.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5604/12321966.1234002

Downshen, Steven. “Alcohol For teens.” Teenshealth, September 2016

https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/alcohol.html

Fertig, Angela R, and Tara Watson. “Minimum drinking age laws and infant health

outcomes.” Journal of health economics vol. 28,3 (2009): 737-47.

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2009.02.006

Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick, and Stefanie Mollborn. “Growing up Faster, Feeling Older:

Hardship in Childhood and Adolescence.” Social psychology quarterly vol. 72,1 (2009):

39-60. doi:10.1177/019027250907200105

Paschall, Mallie J et al. “Relationships between social host laws and underage drinking: findings

from a study of 50 California cities.” Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs vol. 75,6

(2014): 901-7. doi:10.15288/jsad.2014.75.901

Tomé, Gina et al. “How can peer group influence the behavior of adolescents: explanatory

model.” Global journal of health science vol. 4,2 26-35. 29 Feb. 2012,

doi:10.5539/gjhs.v4n2p26

Wagenaar, Alexander C. “Effects of an Increase in the Legal Minimum Drinking Age.” Journal

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of Public Health Policy, vol. 2, no. 3, 1981, pp. 206–25. JSTOR,

https://doi.org/10.2307/3342367. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.