Consequences of Underage Drinking

This information is for those parents who allow their children to drink! Shame on you!

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Recent research has shown that underage drinking has a negative effect on the development of the brain. Consumption of alcohol at an early age hampers the physical growth and development of the brain. Underage drinking has an adverse effect on the development of memory. It decreases the abilities of planning and execution, spatial operations and memory. Underage drinking leads to attention disorders and difficulties in concentrating.

Studies have shown that around 40% of those who start drinking before the age of fifteen, are sure to meet the criteria of alcoholism later in life. Underage drinking has grave and long-lasting consequences.

Underage drinking:

Plays a significant role in risky sexual behavior, including unwanted, unintended, and unprotected sexual activity, and sex with multiple partners. Such behavior increases the risk for unplanned pregnancy and for contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Increases the risk of physical and sexual assault.

Is associated with academic failure.

Is associated with illicit drug use.

Is associated with tobacco use.
Can cause a range of physical consequences, from hangovers to death from alcohol poisoning.

Can cause alterations in the structure and function of the developing brain, which continues to mature into the mid- to late twenties, and may have consequences reaching far beyond adolescence.

Creates secondhand effects that can put others at risk. Loud and unruly behavior, property destruction, unintentional injuries, violence, and even death because of underage alcohol use afflict innocent parties. For example, about 45 percent of people who die in crashes involving a drinking driver under the age of 21 are people other than the driver.9 Such secondhand effects often strike at random, making underage alcohol use truly everybody's problem.

In conjunction with pregnancy, may result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, including fetal alcohol syndrome, which remains a leading cause of mental retardation.

Is a risk factor for heavy drinking later in life,11 and continued heavy use of alcohol leads to increased risk across the lifespan for acute consequences and for medical problems such as cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, and esophagus; liver cirrhosis; pancreatitis; and hemorrhagic stroke.