Tobacco Alcohol and Youth - Alcohol Use

Current Users

In 2003 approximately 75% of high school students had consumed at least one alcoholic drink in their lifetime, according to the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report—United States 2003. (See Table 6.1.) Nearly 45% had consumed alcohol at least once in the thirty days prior to the survey. Slightly more than 28% were current episodic heavy drinkers (having five or more drinks on at least one occasion over the previous thirty days, also known as binge drinking).

In 2003 high school males and females were about as likely to be using alcohol at the time of the survey. For example, among students in eleventh grade, 47.3% of males were current alcohol users compared with 46.8% of females, and in twelfth grade, 56.0% of males were current alcohol users compared with 55.5% for females. In previous years, young men were much more likely than young women to use alcohol; that difference was small in grades eleven and twelve in 2003. In fact, in grades nine and ten, the data show a larger percentage of females engaged in current alcohol use than males. Regarding episodic heavy drinking, high school males were more likely to binge drink than high school females except in grade nine, when 20.9% of girls were binge drinkers while 18.8% of males were. (See Table 6.1.)

Table 6.1 also shows that in 2003 Hispanics were more likely than whites or African-Americans to have consumed alcohol in their lifetime (79.5% as opposed to 75.4% and 71.4%, respectively), but whites were more likely to have engaged in episodic heavy drinking (31.8% versus 15.3% of African-Americans and 28.9% of Hispanics).

DOWNWARD TRENDS.

The Monitoring the Future survey offers a look at teenage alcohol consumption TABLE 6.1
Percentage of high school students who drank alcohol, by sex, race/ethnicity, and grade, 2003
SOURCE: "Table 26. Percentage of High School Students Who Drank Alcohol, by Sex, Race/Ethnicity, and Grade—United States, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2003," in "Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2003," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report May 21, 2004, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/SS/SS5302.pdf (accessed March 3, 2005)

TABLE 6.2
Trends in annual and thirty-day prevalence of use for alcohol and tobacco for eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, 1991-2003

TABLE 6.2
Trends in annual and thirty-day prevalence of use for alcohol and tobacco for eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, 1991-2003 [CONTINUED]
SOURCE: Adapted from Lloyd D. Johnston, Patrick M. O' Malley, Jerald G. Bachman, and John E. Schulenberg, "Table 2. Trends in Annual and 30-Day Prevalence of Use of Various Drugs for Eighth, Tenth, and Twelfth Graders,"and "Footnotes for Table 1 to Table 3," in Monitoring the Future: National Results on Adolescent Drug Use—Overview of Key Findings, 2003, The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse, June 2004, http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/overview2003.pdf (accessed March 3, 2005)

over a long period of time, although it polls different grade levels than the Youth Surveillance Report. Overall, both annual and current (within the past thirty days) alcohol consumption decreased among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders during 2001-2003 over previous years. (See Table 6.2.) Approximately one-fifth (19.7%) of eighth graders reported having consumed a drink in the past thirty days (down from 22.4% in 2000 and 25.1% in 1991), while 35.4% of tenth graders reported having done so (down from 41.0% in 2000 and 42.8% in 1991), and 47.5% of twelfth graders reported having done so (down from 50% in 2000 and 54% in 1991). During the year prior to the survey, a majority of tenth and twelfth graders reported having a drink (59.3% and 70.1%, respectively), but these numbers decreased since 1991 as well. In 1991 more than 70% of tenth graders had a drink and close to 80% of twelfth graders had done so.

Heavy Drinking

According to Monitoring the Future, 6.7% of eighth graders, 18.2% of tenth graders, and 30.9% of twelfth graders reported being drunk during the previous month in 2003. These figures are down from 1991 levels, although there were spikes in the rates, particularly for tenth graders from 1992-97. The highest rate for eighth graders occurred in 1996, when 9.6% reported having been drunk in the last 30 days. The highest rate for tenth graders came in 2000, when the rate hit 23.5%, although it fell to 18.3% two years later. The highest rate for high school seniors hit 34.2% in 1997. (See Table 6.2.)

FIGURE 6.1
Percentage of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders who had five or more alcoholic drinks in a row in the previous two weeks, 1975-2003
SOURCE: Adapted from Lloyd D. Johnston, Patrick M. O'Malley, Jerald G. Bachman, and John E. Schulenberg, "Use: % Who Had 5+ Drinks in a Row in Previous Two Weeks," in Monitoring the Future: National Results on Adolescent Drug Use—Overview of Key Findings, 2003, The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse, June 2004, http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/overview2003.pdf (accessed March 3, 2005)

Figure 6.1 shows the percentage of each grade that reported binge drinking (having five or more drinks) during the two weeks prior to the survey. After increases during the 1990s, binge drinking rates generally declined between 2000 and 2003.