Underage Drinking and 'Alco-Pops'

For my final blog entry I’d like to arch back to an issue I first alluded to in my first post, teenage drinking. In that post I discussed how clothing retailers were not-so-subtly encouraging young women and girls to consume alcohol in excess by marketing T-shirts printed with slogans such as “I’m Drunk, You’re Cute,” and “USA Drinking Team.” This week I’ll examine the issue of underage drinking itself more closely. Do such messages affect young people’s decision whether or not to drink and to what degree? What other types of marketing affect similar decision making? Do young girls consume more alcohol than young boys and why? And, what are the consequences of excessive underage drinking? These are the questions I’ll aim to answer in the paragraphs below.

            So how much do high school aged kids drink alcohol? According to the website for SADD: Students Against Drunk Driving, a national organization of high school students which distributes educational material about alcohol’s negative effects, about 72% of students, roughly 3/4, have been intoxicated at least once by the time they graduate. While teenage drinking is anything but a new phenomenon, this statistic, borrowed from a 2009 NIDA report, provides perspective to the current prevalence of the problem.

            It is also widely observed that teenage girls consume alcohol at dangerous levels more than do teenage boys. An article in Newsweek from 2010 reports that “the number of middle- and high-school girls who say they drink has increased by 11 percent in the past year, from 53 percent to 59 percent. Boys have stayed at about the same level, hovering around 52 percent.” But why is this? One reason, as the Newsweek article goes on to point out is that “for years, boys were the focus of underage-drinking intervention.” Once observed to be bigger drinkers than their female peers, boys became the subject of myriad educational campaigns, and their rate of incidence correspondingly dropped. Girls, in turn, outpaced their male classmates in the area of underage partying.

            Another reason for girls’ increased drinking might be the ways in which the alcoholic beverage industry has responded to the interventions targeting teenage boy drinkers. As these business giants saw inroads being made into one of their key demographics, the industry began targeting girls.  The Newsweek article notes a drastic upsurge in the marketing of “more products devoted to making drinking easier and tastier—the sugar-laden beverages known as alco-pops.” These beverages, which proliferated the market during the time when teen boys were the target of prevention campaigns, are heavily marketed to females. 

         Education.com, a resource for teachers and parents of teenagers, reports that “with their sweet, sugary taste, alco-pops have become girls' drink of choice.” Highlighting the associated dangers of the popularity of these drinks, the website points out that “Teen girls also report drinking alco-pops more than other alcoholic drinks. Alco-pops combine a sweet flavor with the kick of malt liquor to create a taste that often appeals to teens…These drinks often contain more alcohol than most beers.”

            This new trend is especially troubling in light of the newest research surrounding the lasting effects of alcohol on the teenage brain. According to an article in the New York Times, “mounting research suggests that alcohol causes more damage to the developing brains of teenagers than was previously thought, injuring them significantly more than it does adult brains.” The research details the higher occurrence of teenage drinkers to experience forms of alcoholism in adulthood as well as lasting neurological consequences such as memory loss.

            While there are some who advocate lowering the drinking age as a means to curbing problems associated with teenage drinking, evidence like that described in the paragraph above will likely hold the legal drinking age securely at 21. But perhaps more protection is needed for teenage girls. The statistical record indicates that the rate of underage drinking went down for boys when they became the target of educational programs, and went up for girls when they became the focus of targeted ad campaigns. Therefore advocates for high school aged girls should work toward creating similar intervention programs for teenage females. At the same time, parents’ groups should work to hold beverage manufacturers accountable for the role they play in intentionally aiding and encouraging young people to break the law and put themselves in danger.