Life-Threatening Consequences of Early Age Drinking

            Ann Stueve and Lydial N. O’Donnell performed a study that surveyed seventh grade urban students because the researchers had observed that the consumption of alcohol at a very young age was a reoccurring problem that often led to more serious issues.  Stueve and O’Donnel attempted to study the question: Does early alcohol initiation of urban youth influence subsequent alcohol consumption as well as sexual risk behaviors? 

            Stueve and O’Donnel operationally defined urban students as African American and Hispanic seventh graders.  They surveyed 1064 students from three large middle schools in low-income communities and asked the students about their current alcohol consumption levels.  They performed a longitudinal study and surveyed the same students seventh grade and again in tenth grade, asking again about their alcohol consumption as well as their sexual behaviors.  Stueve and O’Donnel found that the students who had started early age drinking patterns were more likely to report in the follow-up survey subsequent alcohol consumption patterns, unprotected sexual intercourse, multiple sexual partners, and being intoxicated while having sex, than those who had not began drinking as early as the seventh grade.  These students were also more prone to having an STD and becoming pregnant.

            Stueve and O’Donnel suggested that the implications of these new findings would be to better educate students about the life-threatening dangers of early age drinking and sexual experimentation.  The researchers proposed that if there were better prevention programs for students even a few years earlier than the seventh grade, the number of students who had subsequent drinking patters and sexual relations, as they got older, would greatly decrease. 

            The primary limitation of this study was that the researchers only used a sample of students from three different middle schools.  The researchers also only gave the students two surveys; the baseline survey and the follow-up survey.  This limited the research because the researchers do not know if the student had been consuming alcohol and sexually experimenting during the entire two years of the study, or only at the time that the follow up survey was completed.  Another limitation was that the surveys were completed at different locations, which could have affected the student’s answers.  The researches also did not take into account the personality characteristics of the participants for the initiation of alcohol consumption, or their genetic predisposition to alcoholism.

            Although the researchers did not particularly study the role of substance abuse in a culture, this plays a big role in the initiation of alcohol use as well as the subsequent drinking patterns in the future.  It is important to take into consideration the culture of the student and what is considered socially acceptable in their specific culture.  If it is acceptable to drink and alcohol is available to students at a young age because of the culture or subculture they are being raised in, the student will be more likely to start drinking at an earlier age than students who are raised in a culture where it is unacceptable.

            Overall, the study showed that seventh grade urban students who started consuming alcohol were more likely to continue their drinking patterns and engage in sexual experimentation.  Stronger and earlier prevention programs are highly recommended to students so that they can be informed of the life threatening consequences of early age drinking and be influenced to not participate in such actions.

Abstract

Steuve, Ann., & O’Donnel, L. N. (2005). Early alcohol initiation and subsequent sexual and alcohol risk behaviors among urban youth. Am J Public Health, 95(5), 887-889. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2003.026567