There's a huge assumption made regarding youth and alcohol: mainly that most teens drink, at least at some point in their secondary education or college careers, and that it's just a fact of life. But personal experience has led me to believe otherwise, and now data seems to be catching up: in England, for example, stats show that nearly 30% of young people don't drink at all. This doesn't include the youth who drink on rare occasions, like I did in college, but those who shun booze altogether. The study involves youth ages 16 to 24.
This really isn't surprising to me, particularly in a country where drinking isn't as taboo as it is in the United States. The more taboo something is made, the more teens want to engage in it, at least from my own personal experience. The United States has a puritanical issue regarding both drinking and sex that doesn't seem to exist in many other more developed nations, but we also have more teen drivers, which makes it more problematic when teens do drink.
What do these findings mean to you? Is it surprising or about where you thought they might be? Do you think the youth of the U.S. drink too much in comparison?
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