Updated October 21, 2014.

"Underage alcohol use is a significant threat to the health and safety of our children. It is time for us to come to grips with this widespread, devastating, public health problem." -- Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. President/CEO, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• In 1997, nearly 10 percent of ninth graders reported driving one or more times while drinking. Thirty-three percent of ninth graders reported having ridden in a car driven by someone who had been drinking alcohol.¹

• Of all children under age 15 killed in vehicle crashes in 1998, 20 percent were killed in alcohol-related crashes.²
• Among 12-to 17-year-old current drinkers, 31 percent had extreme levels of psychological distress, and 39 percent exhibited serious behavioral problems.³
• In 1994, suicides or homicides accounted for 18 percent of the estimated number of alcohol-related deaths of children aged 9-15.⁴
• Current drinkers among a nationally representative sample of youth aged 12-16 had higher levels of diastolic blood pressure than did their non-drinking counterparts.⁵
• Adolescent females who drink exhibit higher levels of estradiol (an estrogen) and testosterone than non-drinking girls. High levels of estrogen may contribute to increased risk for specific diseases, including breast cancer, and high levels of testosterone are associated with an increased risk of substance use.⁶
• Girls, aged 12-16, who were current drinkers were four times more likely than their non-drinking counterparts to suffer depression.

References:

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance - United States, 1997. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: CDC Surveillance Summaries 47(No. SS-3):1-89.

2 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts 1998?Children. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, 1999.

3 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Relationship Between Mental Health and Substance Abuse Among Adolescents. Rockville, MD: Author, 1999.

4 Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (Estimates for alcohol-related deaths by age and cause.) Unpublished data, 1999. Based on National Center for Health Statistics 1994 Mortality Data.

5 Hanna, E.Z. et al. Drinking, smoking, and blood pressure: Do their relationships among youth foreshadow what we know among adults? Paper presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, November, 1999.

6 Martin C.A., et al. Alcohol use in adolescent females: Correlates of estradiol and testosterone. American Journal on Addiction 8(1):9-14, 1999.

7 Hanna E.Z., et al. The relationship of early onset regular smoking and alcohol use to one another, depression, illicit drug use and other risky behaviors during early adolescence: Results from the youth supplement to the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, in press. Back to 'The World of a Child'