14 DAY TRIAL // The prevailing view among parents and scientists alike has thus far been that teens consume a lot of alcohol, at parties and whatnot, in order to gain courage, or social acceptance, or to prove their rebelliousness. A new study paints an entirely different picture.
According to the paper, most of the teens who reported consuming alcohol tended to consider themselves outcasts. The more booze these kids had, the more likely they were to experience increased amounts of social stress, say researchers at the University of Texas in Austin.
The conclusions of this study are highly relevant, since the investigation was led on 8,271 adolescents from 126 schools in the United States. The research began in 1994, and focused on kids between grades 7 and 12, PsychCentral reports.
The study suggests “that we need to pay attention to youth in problematic school environments in general, but also to those who may have trouble in seemingly positive school environments,” UTA sociologist and study leader, Dr. Robert Crosnoe, explains.