Teenagers and young adults give similar reasons why they want to quit problem drinking, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
- Researchers compared people who wanted to quit drinking at ages 13 to 17 years old to those ages 18 to 25 years old. The most common reason to quit was the same among both groups.
- "To show yourself you can quit if you want to" was cited by 74% of young adults and 79% of the teenagers.
- "To save money" was the second most common reason, given by 70% of the young adults and 65% of the teenagers.
- "Future health consequences" was a concern of 49% of teenagers and 51% of young adults.
Teenagers were more likely to cite pressure from family and family troubles, probably because they were more likely to live at home. Young adults tended to worry more what their peer groups felt about their drinking.
However, authors Douglas Smith, Leah Cleeland and Michael Dennis wrote that "we found no significant differences on overall reasons for quitting between emerging adults and adolescents, with the exception of the interpersonal motivation items, few differences existed at the item level when controlling for baseline differences among age cohorts."
Posted By: Adolescent Substance Abuse