Bottoms Up:

The History of Teenage Drinking in America and Why It's Decreasing

By: Shantelle Bartley

Almost everyone has come face to face with the choice to say yes or no to alcohol consumption whether that be at home, at a party, or some other social setting. Oftentimes, that choice is made at home under parental supervision, but that choice is very likely to come before adolescents reach the age of 21. In 2011, approximately 20.9% of adolescents aged 14 to 15 reported to have had at least one drink in their lifetime. A decade later, reports show people ages 12-20 account for 3.4% of all alcohol consumed in the United States.[1] The year 1965 showed the average age of first use of alcohol was 17 ½ while 2003 showed that number decrease to 14. [2] There has been growing concerns about what action to take to stop the average age of alcohol consumption from decreasing, and to lessen underage drinking. Modern day social media and television also continues to depict underage drinking as a common occurrence or as a rite of passage. Despite the seemingly alarming numbers and common media portrayals, adolescent drinking was more prevalent in the mid to late 20th century due to societal pressure from peers and family but has steadily declined since as those pressures have changed in modern day.

The History of the American Teenager

Understanding how teenagers came to be is crucial to understanding the rise and subsequent fall of teenage drinking. Pre-industrial America was a time in America history where people hardly recorded birthdays, let alone had different classifications for life stages outside of child and adult. Everyone in a family unit would stay on the family land and maintain the household until those children became adults and found families of their own; there was no such thing as a pre-adulthood post-child stage of life. Industrialization changed the way America operated as familial roles began to change, children began to work in factories, and life expectancy increased. Parent’s growing concerns for the safety of children caused child labor laws to come into effect in the early 20th century, but this led to the problem of children having too much free time and no adult supervision while parents worked. Continued concerns for their safety led to the development of monitored play spaces and, eventually, public schooling. Public schooling creating a specific niche for high school aged adolescents combined with commercial propaganda for them to spend money in the post-World War 2 American economy led to the separation and creation of the life stage we know as the “teenager” in 1944. Though there were alcohol bans in the U.S., the most notable is the ratification of the 18th amendment which made it illegal for people of all ages to manufacture, sell, or transport alcoholic beverages in the U.S. from 1920-1933,[3] a focus on teenage drinking and its potential issues would not become prevalent until later in the 20th century. It is with those growing concerns and analyses of why teenagers drink and comparing it to why teens drink today that it can be determined that their reasons for drinking have changed, and therefore changed how much they choose to consume.

Opposing Argument

Arguments are made that teenage drinking can’t be declining because the average age that people have their first drink is declining, indicating that children are getting exposed to alcohol at a younger age. While it is true that children are being exposed to alcohol at a younger age, that only indicates that adolescents are having easier access to alcohol and doesn’t equate to an increase in how much they drink overall. In fact, a 2021 survey of alcohol use among various age groups showed adolescents 12-17 obtained alcohol in numerous ways, the most likely option being someone unknown to them over the age of 21. Also, there is more evidence to support the idea that first use alcohol age has stayed the same than there is to show it has increased or increased average alcohol consumption. A guideline for secondary teachers submitted by the Connecticut State Department of Education to administrators in 1966 determined that average first drinking age in Connecticut was 12 to 13 which is slightly below the age 14 determined in the above-mentioned study from 2003.[4] In other words, there is not enough evidence to support the idea that declining first use drinking age influences average alcohol usage by adolescents.

Adolescent Drinking Influence

1.1 Peers

Adolescent drinking was higher in the mid to late 20th than it is today because adolescents were more heavily influenced by their peers than they are today. A study conducted in 1985 to understand and be able to predict why adolescents choose to drink found that when it comes to modeling behavior, peers have high impacts on adolescents. [5] This means that adolescents are likely to observe and imitate the behaviors of their peers. Furthermore, a request from the Connecticut Department of Education about implementing alcohol education into the Connecticut curriculum observed that adolescents are likely to experiment with alcohol “to be one with the crowd.”[4] In support of this observation is a health education campaign from 1957 (figure 1). In this image, it asks the question: 

“Which problem is most likely to influence a teenager: he remote possibility he might become an alcoholic when he’s 40 – or whether his crowd will think the party is dull unless drinks are served?”

On the basis that this article is about finding new ways to reach adolescents to lessen teenage drinking, it can be interpreted that this is a hypothetical question because behavioral observations have shown that adolescents will make decisions based off the wants or observations of their peers. This is especially important to understand about why adolescents drink because media depictions of their peers drinking casually and falling for peer pressure was a common theme. An example of this comes from the movie Grease (1978):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J40ZNwrpJ2o&t=113s

In the scene depicted, Sandy is at a sleepover where the girls pull out bottles of wine and begin drinking. As mentioned above, adolescents are highly likely to observe and mimic the behaviors of their peers, so when asked if she would like some, Sandy eventually says yes to both mimic her peers and fit in with the crowd. As popular as this movie was, depictions like these were common in movies and tv shows in the 70s. Adolescents would observe these drinking habits and were likely to imitate them in real life by drinking and partying at sleepovers and contributing to the high rates of underage drinking during the mid to late 20th century.

Though peer pressure is still prevalent in the 21st century, reduced interactions between peers have led to a reduction in overall adolescent alcohol consumption. Established that drinking is a social problem, adolescents are more likely to drink if they are around peers or close friends, but the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in less human face to face interactions with closed schools and limited to no parties or other forms of gathering. As a result, adolescents no longer faced the direct pressure of saying yes or no to drinking with less opportunities present for them to not fit in.[6] Other conclusions have been made that the rise in social media platforms has caused adolescents to spend more of their free time interacting with peers through a screen instead of face to face. This is also a way that adolescent drinking has decreased as this increased screen time also directly leads to less pressure for adolescents to say yes to drinking in social situations.[7] Therefore, peer pressure in the mid to late 20th century caused average adolescent drinking rates to be higher than modern day as 21st century adolescent drinking is decreased by social media and a global pandemic.

1.2 Family

In addition to peers, adolescent drinking in the mid to late 20th century was higher than modern day adolescent drinking due to heavy parental influence. The 1985 study also observed that adolescents are normatively influenced by their parents.[5] This means that adolescents are likely to change their thoughts and behaviors to get their parent’s approval. Furthermore, the 1966 guide in Connecticut observed adolescents using alcohol because they want “to imitate adults.” The study also states that adolescent drinking practices are influenced primarily by the adults in the family.[4] Figure 1 also confirms this notion when it poses the idea of how to convince adolescents that drinking is wrong when approximately 65% of adults drink and are mostly able to stay out of trouble. That thought process indicates that adolescents drink because they see the adults around them drinking. This is supported by findings in a 1968 summary of various studies and samples over the past 20 years of about 15,000 high school teenagers about why and how much teenagers drink. The samples ranged from a low of 25% of students to 9 in 10 students have drunk alcohol. It also concluded that 33%-50% of boys and 25% of girls had drinking patterns. The observations indicate a positive correlation between increasing drinking among those above and 21and those below 21 with 75% of males over 21 and 50-60% of females over 21 being drinkers. The study shows some increase in both teenage and adult drinking over the last 50 years. When asked why they chose to drink, many adolescents answered that they wanted to act grown or cited the same reasons the adults in their lives chose to drink.[8] This is an indication that adolescents are imitating the behavior of the parents around them, so as adult drinking increased, so did adolescent drinking.

Figures 3 and 4 combined show an overall decrease in drinking averages from 1975 to 2022. Figure 4 also shows the peak in adolescent drinking in the late 70 to early 80s until the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984. Historical discussions show a positive correlation between high adolescent drinking rates at a time of societal pressure from media and parents and its gradual decrease due to less social interactions.

Further Implications

Adult drinking and adolescent drinking are a societal issue. Though established to be very bad for adolescent brain development, they cannot escape the pressure to conform and to fit in as that is human nature. It begs the question of what can be done to lessen the societal pressures adolescents face and will that be enough to significantly decrease adolescent drinking. Arguments have been made to lower the legal drinking age in the United States to 18 because there was a time when that limit was not there and being an adolescent didn’t make you the main problem to be solved when speaking of alcoholism. Others argue the legal age limit should be lowered because adolescents are drinking anyways and have been throughout history, they just hide it and drink more irresponsibly because they’re not allowed to experiment with alcohol in same environments. The other side of the argument says increase the legal age limit to 25 considering that’s when the prefrontal cortex is fully developed, so it makes no sense to have the age at 21 because it has no developmental significance. Like other parts of American history, teenage drinking, and the beliefs around it will continue to change as time does. Change will always come, and the rights and responsibilities around teenage drinking will change to fit current state of American society, so the only thing to do is either advocate for the society you want it to be a part of or continue to silently watch history unfold.

End Notes

[1] “Underage Drinking,” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, January 2006), https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/AA67/AA67.htm#:~:text=In%202003%2C%20the%20average%20age,in%20their%20lives%20(9).

[2] “National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Population Data,” National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2021 (NSDUH-2021-DS0001) | SAMHDA, 2021, https://www.datafiles.samhsa.gov/dataset/national-survey-drug-use-and-health-2021-nsduh-2021-ds0001.

[3] “Research Guides: 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents in American History: Introduction.” Introduction - 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents in American History - Research Guides at Library of Congress. Accessed May 5, 2023. https://guides.loc.gov/18th-amendment#:~:text=Introduction-,18th%20Amendment%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Constitution%3A%20Primary%20Documents%20in%20American,or%20transportation%20of%20intoxicating%20liquors%22.

[4] William J Sanders and Wilfred Bloomberg, “Teaching About Alcohol in Connecticut Schools - A Guide for Teachers and Administrators,” Teaching About Alcohol in Connecticut Schools - A Guide for Teachers and Administrators § (1966), pp. 1-23

[5] Barbara J. Bank et al., “Comparative Research on the Social Determinants of Adolescent Drinking,” Social Psychology Quarterly 48, no. 2 (1985): p. 164, https://doi.org/10.2307/3033611.

[6] Mahmood R. Gohari et al., “Examining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth Alcohol Consumption: Longitudinal Changes from Pre-to Intra-Pandemic Drinking in the Compass Study,” Journal of Adolescent Health 71, no. 6 (2022): pp. 665-672, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.07.007.

[7] Rakhi Vashishtha et al., “Why Is Adolescent Drinking Declining? A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis,” Addiction Research &Amp; Theory 28, no. 4 (2019): pp. 275-288, https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2019.1663831.

[8] Akers, Ronald L. “Teenage Drinking: A Survey of Action Programs and Research.” Journal of Alcohol Education 13, no. 4 (1968): 1–10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45095502.

[9] Frances Todd, “A New Look in Alcohol Education,” Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation 28, no. 8 (1957): pp. 27-28, https://doi.org/10.1080/00221473.1957.10628627.

[10] Grease (Paramount Pictures, 1978), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J40ZNwrpJ2o&t=113s.

[11] Barron H. Lerner, “How Americans Learned to Condemn Drunk Driving,” What It Means to Be American, February 15, 2019, https://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/identities/how-americans-learned-to-condemn-drunk-driving/.

[12] “The Fight against Underage Drinking: Stats on Teen Alcohol Use,” Responsibility.org, March 25, 2023, https://www.responsibility.org/alcohol-statistics/underage-drinking-statistics.

[13] “Underage Drinking,” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, January 2006), https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/AA67/AA67.htm#:~:text=In%202003%2C%20the%20average%20age,in%20their%20lives%20(9).

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