Alcohol Use In High Schools Essay

Alcohol use within high school students is prevalent problem, not only because of the 33% consumption rate (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015), but also because of the numerous consequences that may affect the students within this third of the high school population. Having a bad time, neglecting responsibilities, and getting into fights were reported to be the most common out of the previously mentioned consequences (Neal, Corbin, & Fromme, 2006). These rates and consequences call for interventions to be made in order to deter the alcohol use among the high school population. Identifying key predictors of alcohol use within high school students is the first step in designing effective intervention programs, as these predictors can be used as guidelines in determining how to tackle the problem of alcohol use. Threats, bullying, and

In a survey of 39,937 high school students, participants were asked questions identifying bullies, victims of bullying, as well as substance use (Radliff, Wheaton, Robinson, & Morris, 2012). Out of these participants, 22.7% were identified to be involved with bullying as either a victim, bully, or as simultaneously a bully and victim. Students who were both bullies as well as victims were more significantly more likely to drink than those not involved, with 53.5% of victims being alcohol users compared to 28.1% for students who were not involved with bullying. Those who were only victims had high drinking rates as well, however not high enough to be significant at only 34.5%. This study appears limited in its failure to separate the data by sex however, as bullying rates vary by sex, with males more likely to be involved with bullying (Nansel et al., 2001). Our study will account for this by separating the data