Scary statistics from site for Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free (dedicated to keeping alcohol away from kids 9-15): I know the issue is involving college-age kids, but still...
Seventy-one percent of eighth graders and 88 percent of tenth graders believe that alcohol is readily available to them for consumption.
Forty percent of ninth-grade students reported having consumed alcohol before they were age 13. In contrast, only 27 percent of ninth graders reported having smoked cigarettes, and 13 percent reported having used marijuana before they were age 13.2
Forty-one percent of ninth-grade students reported drinking in the past month, while only 28 percent reported smoking in the past month.
Almost one-fourth of eighth graders and one-half of tenth graders have been drunk at least once.
One-fifth of ninth graders reported binge drinking (having had five or more drinks on one occasion) in the past month.
Rates of drinking differ among racial and ethnic minority groups. Among ninth graders, binge drinking was reported by 27 percent of non-Hispanic, white students; 30 percent of Hispano/Latino students; 15 percent of African-American students; and 5 percent of Asian-Pacific Islander students.
The gap between alcohol use by boys and girls has closed. Among ninth graders, girls consume alcohol and binge drink at rates equal to boys.
More than 40 percent of individuals who start drinking before the age of 13 will develop alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence at some point in their lives.
*If drinking is delayed until age 21, a child's risk of serious alcohol problems is decreased by 70 percent.*
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Makes me rethink my stand on lowering the drinking age, but I still believe parents should address this with their children like they do with sex or drugs, etc. and supervise their first exposures to drinking.
http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/