ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING ALCOHOL USE

Each year, alcohol use results in significant and costly health and social problems. These problems include traffic crashes, accidental falls, burns, drownings, cirrhosis, suicide, alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse, interpersonal violence, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, underage drinking, and other medical problems (Reynolds, Stewart, and Fisher 1997). Youth who engage in alcohol use are not immune from experiencing all of these problems, whether during their youth or later on in life. During youth, the problems related to underage drinking have been identified as binge drinking, impaired driving, poor school performance, and crime (Clark and Hilton 1991; Stinson and Campbell 1996).

Some of the more disturbing statistics on youth alcohol use show that alcohol is the drug of choice for most youth (Johnston, O’Malley, and Bachman 1998), alcohol is the most common contributor to youth injury, death, and criminal behavior (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1992), and underage use can result in significantly increased risk for alcohol addiction (Grant and Dawson 1997). And while it may be true that youth and young adults tend to drink less than older adults, they tend to drink considerably more alcohol when they do drink (Clark and Hilton 1991).