Underage drinking wanes as teens embrace more isolated addictions

Recent surveys show underage drinking subsiding as experts note teenagers are enjoying more solitary addictions to marijuana and digital screens.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported last month that 3 million fewer people ages 12 to 20 reported consuming alcohol during 30-day stretches in 2023 than in 2014.

The agency, a branch of the Health and Human Services Department, also found in its annual survey that nearly 2 million fewer young people over the same period were binge drinkers and 638,000 fewer described themselves as heavy drinkers.

Several experts interviewed by The Washington Times said teens coming out of pandemic lockdowns have favored more isolated habits as they shun the social drinking and hookups of past generations.

“First, family size is decreasing in developed countries, meaning that it’s easier for parents to closely monitor their kids,” said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University psychology professor and drug addiction researcher. “Second, the internet has produced a range of entertainment opportunities that many teens find more compelling than going out into the world.”

Mr. Humphreys said the latest SAMHSA survey adds to a decade of research showing a marked decline in binge drinking, cigarette smoking, criminal mischief and unprotected sex among teens in developed countries.

George F. Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said several factors have curbed underage drinking for the past two decades.

“These declines coincide with … the establishment in law of a national minimum legal drinking age of 21 in the late 1980s, increasing awareness among teens and adults of the potential impact of alcohol on adolescent brain development, and, more recently, a cultural shift in which late teens and young adults have come to view alcohol as unhealthy,” Mr. Koob, a behavioral physiologist specializing in addictions, said in an email.

In Gallup polling released Tuesday, 66% of adults ages 18 to 34 said drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day is “bad for your health” compared with fewer than 4 in 10 older adults who said the same. 

“While it is not a new phenomenon that younger people are more likely than those in older age groups to view alcohol as unhealthy, the latest gaps in perceptions are the largest recorded by Gallup,” Megan Brenan, a Gallup research consultant, wrote in a summary of the findings.

Overall, the polling company said a record-high 45% of all adults it surveyed in July said moderate drinking is unhealthy.

Meanwhile, marijuana and social media use have surged among young people.

Gallup reported in April that 12% of people ages 18 to 29 consumed marijuana at least 10 days a month compared with 8% of those ages 50 to 64 and 6% of adults 65 and older.

Last summer, the polling firm reported that most teens spent an average of 4.8 hours a day using social media. Daily time spent on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other apps ranged from 4.1 hours at age 13 to 5.8 hours at age 17.

Public officials say a youth mental health crisis of anxiety and depression has driven teens toward more solitary addictions since COVID-19 lockdowns sent them home in March 2020.

In recent months, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has called on Congress to slap a tobacco-style warning label on social media, and dozens of public school districts have banned smartphones.

“Excessive smartphone use among youth is linked to increased anxiety, depression and other mental health issues,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wrote in a letter Tuesday urging his state’s schools to “immediately restrict” cellphones ahead of fall classes.

According to some drunk driving awareness groups, public education campaigns deserve credit for the decade-long decline in underage drinking. They chalk that up to parents becoming more vigilant and less tolerant of the practice.

“Data shows that as conversations between parents and their kids about alcohol have gone up, underage drinking has gone down,” said Leslie Kimball, executive director of the advocacy group Responsibility.org. “We need to normalize this trend to end underage drinking for good.” 

In March, the Biden-Harris administration announced $39.4 million in federal grants “to beat the overdose epidemic and tackle the mental health crisis.”

That funding included $4.6 million for efforts to reduce drinking among people ages 12 to 20.

“We are building a truly integrated, equitable and accessible behavioral health care system,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said at the time.

Some mental health experts warned that emerging generations of young people have gotten sneakier, not healthier, about their preferred addictions. 

Ray Guarendi, a Catholic media personality and family psychologist based in Canton, Ohio, blames the breakdown of American families for this trend.

“As the family fractures, no matter how many public or private programs are implemented, discontent among young people will rise,” Mr. Guarendi said in an email. “And they will naturally turn to some type of substance or pleasure to satisfy the holes in their well-being.”