Teens & Alcohol

New Resource: Your Teen and Alcohol: A Guide for Maine Parents (PDF)

Not all kids in Maine drink, yet because they live in an environment that heavily promotes and enables alcohol use, all teens are at risk. A recent statewide survey reported that 57.9 % of Maine students in grades eight through 12 have tried alcohol. (1) In addition, 36.4% of the teens said they drank within one month of the survey, and 18.9% reported binge drinking (five or more alcoholic beverages in a row) within two weeks of the study. More importantly, 56.2% of teens don't believe their parents would find out if they were drinking. According to the survey results, they're probably right. Only 23% of Maine parents believe their teen has tried alcohol (2).

Some people believe that if the drinking age were lower, like in Europe, teens would drink less. An interesting article by Aaron White, PhD, a leading national researcher in the prevention field addresses this issue: "Should Parents Follow the European Model?" (PDF)

(1) 2006 Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey (MYDAUS) of Maine 8th - 12th grade students.

(2) Conducted by Strategic Marketing Services on behalf of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse

Documents in PDF format require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Printouts of these documents are also available upon request.

MaineParents.Net

Teens & Alcohol