FITeens Toolkit

75 Alcohol use and drunkenness tend to emerge during the adolescent years and has been described as a serious public health problem worldwide. Europe has the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the world and alcohol is one of the leading risk factors for premature mortality. Thus, alcohol poses enormous health and safety risks (WHO, 2018). Because of its availability, alcohol is one of the most commonly used drugs for adolescents. Young people use alcohol to fulfill social and personal needs, enhance contact with peers, and initiate new relationships (WHO, 2018). Developmental transitions, such as puberty and increasing independence, have also been associated with alcohol use (Gutierrez & Sher, 2015; Marshall, 2014). Epidemiological studies have detected the development of a new pattern of alcohol consumption in adolescents. This pattern is characterized by drinking large amounts of alcohol over a short period of time, especially in leisure time and weekends, with periods of abstinence between drinking episodes (Carvajal & Lerma-Cabrera, 2014). In spite of the fact that young people drink less often than adults, on average they consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers. Specifically, compared to adults, adolescents drink more than twice as much per drinking episode. We can say that they show a pattern of binge drinking.