TO UNDERSTAND THE issue of teenage alcohol abuse, it is helpful to explore teen attitudes toward drinking and to discuss the issue of why teens drink in the first place. Social environment, peer influence, and, some experts argue, media influence contribute to teen drinking. While these factors play a role in a teenager's taking his or her first drink, individual and family characteristics may direct a teen toward or away from alcohol dependence. A teen's personality and values, emotional state of mind, family lifestyle, and, possibly, predisposition, or tendency, toward alcoholism all may influence the descent into alcoholism.

Social environment

A national survey of 17,000 high school seniors found that alcohol was the drug most used in 1990. Ninety percent of respondents admitted that they had tried alcohol. Teen drinking is primarily a social activity; in...