A new report by government epidemiologists published in Mortality & Morbidity Weekly Report finds current alcohol use by teens fell to 29.2% in 2019 from 41.8% in 2009. That’s a 30.1% reduction.
If measured from the high recorded in 1995, the reduction is more than 40%.
The study also showed that most students are not driving after consuming alcohol or riding in cars with drinking drivers. Just 5% of survey respondents who drove in the last month report they drove after consuming alcohol. Fewer than one in six high school students have ridden with a drinking driver in the last month.
Responsibility.org CEO Chris Swonger welcomed the continued decline in high school drinking and emphasized Responsibility.org’s ongoing commitment to eliminate underage drinking:
“The continued decline in underage drinking is great news for the health and safety of our kids – and thankfully, survey after survey continue to affirm this downward trend.
“Research continues to show parents are the No. 1 influence on their kids’ decisions to drink — or not drink — alcohol. And when conversations about alcohol between children and parents go up, the underage drinking rate goes down.
“That’s why it’s so important that, as our kids start going ‘back to school’ in some form or fashion, parents must drive home the message that while their kids may be in a new classroom this year, the values that are important in their household are the same – like making healthy choices and not drinking underage. As a dad of two boys myself – one of them starting high school this year — that’s a message that will be heard loud and clear in our house over and over, and I encourage all parents to continue those conversations at home, as well,” Swonger said.
Other key findings include:
- Underage drinking is higher among female high school students (32%) than among their male peers (26%), and White students report higher levels of consumption compared to their Hispanic and Black peers (34%, 28%, and 17%, respectively).
- Binge drinking among high school students did not change between 2017 and 2019. However, the prevalence of students who reported they consumed 10 or more drinks in a row on a single occasion in the past month decreased significantly – down nearly 50%, proportionally, from a high of 6.1 in 2013 to a record low 3.1 in 2019.
- Among students who report drinking in the past month, 41% of students report someone else gave them the alcohol they drank. The source of alcohol consumed by high school students has remained unchanged between 2007 and 2019.
- About 15% of high school students report they first consumed alcohol before the age of 13. That’s a 54%, decline from nearly 33% who in 1991 said they first consumed alcohol before the age of 13.
The report contains no new insights on how to reduce illicit use of alcohol by teens. Instead it simply repeats a call fr increasng alcohol taxes and reducing the number of places where alcohol is sold.
The study was based on the Center for Disease Control’s 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey.