by Patrick O’Malley, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Jerald G. Bachman

About the authors: Patrick O’Malley, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Jerald G. Bachman are research scientists at the University of Michigan.

Many American adolescents use alcohol, even though the minimum legal drinking age is 21. This article describes the extent and nature of alcohol use among American adolescents. In addition, the article provides information on trends in, self-reported reasons for, and consequences of adolescent alcohol use. The article draws on information from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), which are described in the following section. The discussion emphasizes, however, findings from the MTF study.

Prevalence of Alcohol Use Among Adolescents

Several major ongoing national surveillance systems collect and...