Drinking alcohol among teenagers in Kazakhstan

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KIMEP University

Problem-Solution Essay Outline

Drinking alcohol among teenagers in Kazakhstan

I. Introduction

Introduction of the problem: Adolescence is a period with emotional and physical changes, so young people can be more physically unstable and sensitive in this period.

Narrowing down the problem: Nowadays, teenagers in different parts of the world, including Kazakhstan, tend to drink more and more frequently. The consequences such as negative health effects, growth of suicides and crimes among teenagers, are destined to appear.

This statement: Our society should develop a system of actions to minimize alcohol drinking among teenagers.

II. Background

A. Identify the problem/ show that the problem exists:

* Terrible statistics

* Deterioration in health

* Awful consequences such as growth of suicides and crimes among teenagers.

B. What caused the problem:

* Risk-Taking

* Sensitivity and Tolerance to Alcohol

* Personality Characteristics

* Environmental Aspects

C. The effects of the problem:

* Negative brain effects

* Negative liver effects

* Loss of control

* Suicide

* Crime

III. Solution 1

teenager alcohol drinking kazakhstan

Topic sentence: Government should increase taxes on alcohol and set high minimum for prices on alcohol.

Practice shows that this method reduces the consumption of alcohol and correspondingly the level of problem drinking especially among young people

Describe your solution: -> higher prices -> lower alcohol consumption.

Advantages: This method has a good result; many teenagers don't have enough money to buy expensive alcohol, so, during time they start trying to stop drinking alcohol.

Disadvantages: Some teenagers can decide not to reject alcohol, but steal because the lack of money. Also, they can start to extort money and combine into groups to collect money, where they can meet with criminals. Some teenagers can ask money from parents and relatives, sometimes using threats.

IV. Solution 2

Topic sentence: Every school with the help of psychologists should develop school-based alcohol drinking prevention programs.

All schools should include in their educational programs lectures about the dangers of alcohol. They may include movies and interviews with former young alcoholics who regret about the past and wasted time.

Describe your solution: Teenagers will ponder whether to drink alcohol or not and what the consequences may be.

Advantages: Adolescents will be informed about awful consequences there are, will inform their friends about it and further will think whether to drink alcohol or not.

Disadvantages: They can just ignore it, some of them can feel anger that they are required to learn such lectures, therefore some teenagers can develop a negative attitude to school.

V. Solution 3

Topic sentence: Each parent should create family-based programs and rules to prevent underage drinking.

Parents have a powerful influence on their children, and they can create strong rules against alcohol, speak about harmful effects from it, and monitor teenagers' behavior.

Describe your solution: More attention -> less possibility to start drinking.

Advantages: It works: children prefer that their parents don't know about alcohol drinking. Thus, when parents constantly connect with them, speak with them, greet them, children prefer to be sober, or even don't drink at all and try to avoid peers who drink.

Disadvantages: Children can separate from family, have arguments with parents and run away from home.

VI. Conclusion-Recommendation:

So, to sum up, alcohol drinking among teenagers is a problem which is wide spread and which requires constant monitoring and interference. Drunkenness puts teens at risk in different spheres, such as problems with health, attempt of suicide and commission of crimes. However, society should pay special attention on one solution- family-based prevention program. People can excuse underage drinking by government inaction, imperfection of the laws and indifference of teachers, but the main question is in the people themselves, their upbringing and morals. However, due to the possible disadvantages we should aggregate of all of the methods which are increasing prices on alcohol, school-based and family-based prevention programs to achieve the greatest result.

Drinking Alcohol Among Teenagers in Kazakhstan

Have ever you heard the awful story about the 15-years old girl, who had drunk alcohol and tried to attempt suicide? Did you see that boy, who lost consciousness on the street because of drinking alcohol? Such conversations, unfortunately, are not rarities and, moreover, are wide spread. In today's society, drinking alcohol and alcohol related problems among teenagers became a critical issue and hot topic. Today, youth in different parts of the world and also in Kazakhstan start to drink more and more frequently. Such consequences as negative health effects, growth of suicides and crimes among teenagers are destined to appear. So, our society should develop a system of actions to minimize alcohol drinking among teenagers.

Underage drinking is a problem which is highly spread and negatively impacts not only on certain individuals, but also on humanity in general. It is known that some negative consequences such as traffic crashes, killings, thefts and suicide attempts are caused by the influence of alcohol on people. But even more shocking is that nowadays more and more young people become addicted to alcohol. The fault of this is irresponsible attitude to the consequences. Michael Windle, et.al in their article "Transition Into Underage and Problem Drinking" (2008) explained the emergence of underage drinking by possible effects from transition period, such as puberty, changing in relationships and appearance and increasing independence. Adolescence is a period of both internal and external changes, so during this time young people become more sensitive and susceptible. The reasons of starting to drink, caused by transition period, can be different, but the main ones are following. Firstly, it is risk-taking. Teenagers want to encounter potentially dangerous situations to tickle their nerves and have a new experience. Secondly, sensitivity and tolerance to alcohol can take place. The article which describes the problems of alcohol showed that "teenagers have more tolerance to negative consequences such as drowsiness, lack of coordination, and hangover effects", but at the same time, are "more sensitive to the positive effects of drinking, such as feeling more at ease in social situations" (Underage drinking: Why do adolescents drink, what are the risks, and how can underage drinking be prevented? 2006). Thirdly, alcohol drinking can be caused by personal characteristics. Young people who are very sensitive or aggressive may be at greater risk to start drinking and also children of alcoholics have more likelihood to start to consume alcohol than children without alcoholic relatives (Turney, 2007). The last reason is social factors. Influence of parents and peers can become a key factor for character development. Also, aggressive media and celebrity lifestyles have a great influence on adolescents in drinking problems. So, it is not a rarity to see a drunken pupils and students for example in yards or parks in different parts of the world and also in Kazakhstan. Most of us understand that the future of the world depends on the young generation, but what will be with our youth?

While the amount of children who drink alcohol increases, the age of the children who drink liquor decreases. There are cases when children systematically drink alcohol since 7 years old. This is an awful statistic. Every third 12 year old in Kazakhstan consumes alcohol, and at the age of 13 years - every second. Surveys showed that most students in the 6th grade have not only tasted alcohol, but also buy a variety of alcohol-based beverages such as wine, beer and champagne. The main fact is that children have "tasted" alcohol with the help of drinking father or someone from the family. According to the statistics of the article "Teenagers' and children's drinking" (n.d.) by 8th grade the number of teenagers who drink alcohol regularly increases: 54% of students drink alcohol once a month, 7% - 2 times a month, while 11% are at risk for developing alcoholism. By 11th grade teen addiction to alcohol also increases: 45% drink alcohol once a month, 20.8% - once every two weeks, 29% - drink alcohol at least once a week. 39% of teens from 11th grade used alcohol weekly. Only 4% of the students had never tried alcohol. This information is according to official data, but in real life, given indicators are even higher.

Effects of excessive and premature alcohol use mainly affect the physical and psychological condition. The article "Biological impacts of alcohol use: An overview" shows that alcohol negatively effects the liver, brain and endocrine system (Dunlan, n.d.). Another problem is that while drinking people lose their understanding of risk and responsibility, and as possible consequences of that are suicides and crimes. Current indicators show that Kazakhstan is on 4th place in the world of number of suicides (Tolstoy, 2010) and according to Payne, the percent of committed and attempted suicide is higher among people under the influence of alcohol than among people who are sober (2002). Drunk people have blurred concepts about what is permitted. People due to loss of control may steal, get into a fight and even kill. So, underage drinking is a destructive influence on young people and must be prevented.

Nowadays prices on alcohol in Kazakhstan are low enough and it is not a problem for teenagers to buy drinks containing alcohol. For example, in our supermarkets and kiosks we can see following prices 0.7 liters of vodka is worth an average of 300kzt; beverages containing alcohol are available from 150 KZT. That is too low cost! So, the first possible solution is - the government should increase taxes on alcohol, and set high minimum prices on alcohol. Thus, increasing taxes on alcohol containing drinks by the government will set in motion a well-known mechanism of increasing prices. Practice shows that this method reduces the consumption of alcohol and correspondingly the level of problem drinking especially among young people. The research from the article "Reducing underage drinking: A collective responsibility", using a variety of different data and empirical approaches, proved the efficiency of the method and policies that raise the prices of alcoholic beverages "reduce the health, economic, and social consequences resulting from alcohol use and abuse." (Bonnie & O'Connel, 2004) This method has a good result, because many teenagers don't have enough money to buy expensive alcohol so they tend to stop drinking alcohol with time. However, this method, also has some disadvantages; for example, some teenagers can decide not to reject alcohol, but steal because the lack of money. Some teenagers can ask for money from parents and relatives, sometimes using threats. Also, they can start to extort money and combine into groups to collect money, where they can meet with criminals that can lead to even more negative consequences. We should also remember that shopkeepers will increase prices without pleasure, and most of them does not try to identify the age while selling. Thus, government should not only establish laws and regulations, but also ensure the implementation of them. So, this solution is efficient only with additional measures, and the most important of which is control - control over youth, and control over shopkeepers.

The alcohol consumption problem is not only physical problem, but is also connected with the mind. So it is very important that teachers with help of psychologists develop school-based prevention programs that all schools could include lectures about the dangers of alcohol in their educational programs. According to Waters and Thom, a subject which is based on the textbook `health studies' is now included in the national school curriculum at all levels, explains that alcohol has harmful physiological effects on the growing body and teaches that young people should therefore refrain from drinking (2007). However, as a person who graduated from public school, I could say that it was just formality. During the whole school life my classmates and I had such lectures twice. So, we still need an effective school-based prevention program. Organizations should develop a plan of action; include movies and interviews with former young alcoholics who regret about past and wasted time in lectures. Newton, Vogl, Teesson, and Andrews in their article "Climate schools: alcohol module: cross-validation of a school-based prevention programme for alcohol misuse." described the effect of school prevention program which is based on computerized intervention. Using new technology, the organizers spread the information about the harmful effect, negative consequences and false expectations about alcohol use. Moreover, use of modern technology will relieve teenagers from the usual lectures, and will provide information not from school teachers, but from peers, psychologists and experts, who will better influence the youth. Thus, teenagers will ponder whether to drink alcohol and what the consequences may be. They will be informed, about the awful consequences, will inform their friends and further will think whether to drink alcohol or not. Possible disadvantages of this method are following. According to the results, a school-based prevention program is effective only for a short period - after 6 months it does not work (Newton, Vogl, Teesson, & Andrews, 2009) Also, children can just ignore the information; some of them can feel angry that they are required to learn such lectures; it could have the opposite effect to do against what they are taught. So, this method is good if it is used regularly and systematically, but not too often and includes not only informative but also interesting information and practical examples.

Obviously, family is a key for development a character, therefore another possible solution is the creation of family-based programs and rules in order to avoid underage drinking. Parents have a powerful influence on their children, and they can create strict rules against alcohol, speak about its harmful effects from it and monitor teenagers' behavior to prevent underage drinking. Bogenschneider, Wuy, Raaelli ,and Tsay in their article showed that the majority of parents do not know their children and their environment, and exactly because of that nowadays the number of drinking teenagers is enormous (1998). This is a serious problem, because especially in this period of life, teenagers need their parent's attention, caring and compassion. When such elements are absent, the problems immediately and increasingly appear. The situation is proportional: more attention cause less possibility to start drinking. Children prefer that their parents do not know about drinking alcohol. Thus, when parents constantly connect with them, speak with them, and greet them, children prefer to be sober, or even not drink at all and try to avoid peers who drink. However, in practice parents have not special qualities and knowledge to cope with the problem alone. They might make the situation worse, by using too much strict rules and unreasonable interference. Children can separate from the family, have arguments with parents, run away from home Also, some conversations can negatively impact on children, teenagers can take displeasure and get an inferiority complex. So, our governments should also develop a course for parents, which will be taught exactly about measures which should be taken in order to prevent underage drinking. Some organizations should develop a list of special literature for parents to read and increase they possibility to help their children correctly. Thus, this solution also has some disadvantages and to make this method effective parents should act cautiously but sensitively, using the skills of psychologists.

So, to sum up, drinking alcohol among teenagers is a problem which is wide spread and which requires constant monitoring and interference. Drunkenness puts at risk in different spheres, such as problems with health, suicide attempts and commission of crimes. Rejecting alcohol by teenagers means health future generations, better, more successful life, and warmer relations with family, that is the reasons, which provide that the solution of the problem is important. Having considered three possible solutions, which are - increasing prices on alcohol, school-based prevention program and parental monitoring, we can see both advantages and disadvantages. Each of them has a good theoretical based solution, but in practice teenagers avoid the right way and find loopholes. However, from these three possible solutions, society should pay special attention on one- family-based prevention program. People can excuse of underage drinking by government inaction, imperfection of the laws and indifference of teachers, but the main question is in the people themselves, their upbringing and morals. Therefore, since parents are the primary basis for the formation of concepts rules of conduct, way of life and children's understanding of right and wrong, exactly family should be responsible for the child and be in particular need to control their surroundings, habits, and principles. So, if the children have intelligence, responsible, loving parents, family will care that their children will also have such qualities. And also this method will be successful exactly in Kazakhstan because of the respect and love to parents due to the traditions and culture. Thus, the best probable solutions will be a family-based prevention program, which will develop a good character, and which despite anything will provide good doings. However, due to the possible disadvantages of the method, such as running away from home and ignoring parents we should act firmly but gently. And definitely, governments should aggregate the methods and develop a system of actions which includes in itself increasing prices on alcohol, school-based and family-based prevention programs to achieve greater result.

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