Keeping Glen Cove SAFE: Underage Drinking Awareness Campaign
Keeping Glen Cove SAFE: Underage Drinking Awareness Campaign
Monitoring the Future (MTF) is one of the nation’s most relied upon scientific sources of valid information on trends in use of licit and illicit psychoactive drugs by U.S. adolescents, college students, young adults, and adults up to age 60. MTF is conducted each year by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
The MTF survey is given annually to students in eighth, 10th, and 12th grades who self-report their substance use behaviors over various time periods, such as past 30 days, past 12 months, and lifetime. The survey also documents students’ perception of harm, disapproval of use, and perceived availability of drugs and has been doing so since 1975.
In 2023 7,584 12th grade students in 83 schools distributed throughout the US. Data collection took place in both public and private high schools. MTF used an electronic questionnaire format for the fifth consecutive year. Starting in 2021, students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades completed a web-based questionnaire on their own electronic devices during class time (which may have been at home if they were schooling remotely, for example as a result of the pandemic). In both 2019 and 2020 students also completed an electronic questionnaire that was connected to the internet, although they completed the survey on electronic tablets that MTF brought to schools. It is no longer necessary for MTF to bring tablets to schools because practically all schools now have internet access and almost all students have electronic devices to complete the MTF questionnaires. In rare cases when these resources are not available at a school, MTF brings electronic devices for students, as well as a mobile server to collect their survey responses.
The survey results divide neatly into the time periods before and after the onset of the pandemic. All surveys in 2020 were completed before March 15, when national social distancing policies were enacted, and data collection was halted due to pandemic concerns. Consequently, results from 2020 and previous years are pre-pandemic, while results from 2021 and afterwards took place after the onset of the pandemic and the associated national response. The COVID-19 pandemic is a historical event of particular interest for the 2023 results. From 2020 to 2021 MTF documented some of the largest one-year declines ever recorded by the survey across a wide variety of drugs from. It is possible that these decreases will hold for future years going forward, or, instead, drug prevalence levels may bounce back to where they were before the pandemic, as recorded by MTF with the 2020 results.
Alcohol Use in 2023 significantly declined in 12th grade for lifetime, past 12-month, past 30- day, and daily use. It also significantly declined in 10th grade for lifetime use.
These trends contrast with last year, when 12th grade alcohol use increased for lifetime, past 12-month, and daily use. The decline in 12th grade alcohol use is consistent with a delayed effect of the pandemic. Students in 12th grade in 2023 are members of the cohort that were just starting high school and were in 9th grade in 2020, when most U.S. school buildings closed as a result of the pandemic.
While in 9th grade this cohort had the largest decreases among students in all grades for substance use, including alcohol.
To the extent that forestalled initiation of substance use for one year can potentially lower adolescents’ levels of substance use for the rest of their lives
The 2023 decrease in alcohol use in 12th grade may stem from the lowered levels of alcohol initiation in this cohort three years earlier.
The significant decreases in alcohol use in 2023 in 12th grade are part of a long term, overall decline that has taken place since the year 2000 in all three grades.
From 2001 to 2023 past 12- month prevalence has decreased from 73% to 46% in 12th grade, from 65% to 31% in 10th grade, and from 43% to 15% in 8th grade.
Unlike most other drugs, alcohol use showed only a modest increase during the 1990s relapse, exhibiting more of a pause in its long-term decline.
Binge Drinking was lower in 2023 than in 2022 for all three grades, but these decreases were statistically significant. Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks in a row during the past two weeks.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit https://www.nida.nih.gov/.
Local and County Resources
Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services
Charles Evans Center Glen Cove
Long Island Addictions Resource Center
Long Island Center for Recovery
Long Island Council of Alcoholism & Drug Dependance (LICADD)
Nassau Alliance For Addiction Services (NAFAD)
South Oaks with Northwell Health
YES Community Counseling Center
National Resources and Data
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Alcohol and Public Health; Underage Drinking
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Alcohol and Public Health: Addressing Excessive Alcohol Use: State Fact Sheets
CDC works with states and communities to prevent excessive alcohol use and its impact. These fact sheets highlight the public health problem and the status of alcohol policy solutions in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Alcohol and Public Health: New York The Numbers: Average Number of Deaths from Excessive Drinking is More Than 6,700
Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking: Stop Underage Drinking: Communities Talk
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Underage Drinking
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Alcohol and Your Brain – A Virtual Reality Experience (video)
New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports: OASAS
Portal for Federal Underage Drinking: Resources
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA)
Tips for Teens: Underage Drinking: Myth vs Facts-For preteens and teens. It compares the myths with the facts about alcohol use among youth and the effects of alcohol use. This fact sheet can help parents and prevention professionals start conversations about underage drinking and alcohol misuse.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Women and Alcohol
Research shows that alcohol use and misuse among women are increasing While alcohol misuse by anyone presents serious public health concerns, women who drink have a higher risk of certain alcohol-related problems compared to men.
Resources for Alcohol and Substance Prevention and Treatment Providers
The Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network develops and disseminates tools and strategies needed to improve the quality of substance abuse prevention efforts and provide training and technical assistance services to the substance use/misuse prevention field.
Alcohol Awareness Toolkit Seeks to raise awareness about alcohol-related harms and the importance of strong alcohol policies for prevention and public health providers to strategically educate and inform decision makers about effective alcohol policies by providing easy-to-personalize, templated opinion editorials, letters to legislators and proclamations.
Healthcare Professional’s Core Resource on Alcohol. Developed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to provides clinicians with articles, insights, and tools to improve alcohol-related healthcare and clinical outcomes.
