Assignment- 1

Title: - Research proposal on

Effect of underage drinking on youth
Marketing Research- MKT614

Submitted by: Chandan Verma

Reg no: - 11301048
Roll no: - RQ1E13A20
Sec: - Q1E13

Submitted to: Mr. Deepak

INTRODUCTION
Underage Drinking: A Major Public Health Challenge
By the time they reach the eighth grade, nearly 50 per cent of adolescents have had
at least one drink, and over 20 per cent report having been drunk
(1). Approximately 20 per cent of 8th graders and almost 50 per cent of 12th graders
have consumed alcohol within the past 30 days. Among 12th graders, almost 30 per
cent of the youth are reported drinking on 3 or more occasions per month.
(2). Approximately 30 per cent of 12th graders engage in heavy episodic drinking,
now popularly termed binge drinkingthat is, having at least five or more drinks on
one occasion within the past 2 weeksand it is estimated that 20 per cent do so on
more than one occasion.
Apart from being illegal, underage drinking poses a high risk to both the individual
and society. For example, the rate of alcoholrelated traffic crashes is greater for
drivers ages 16 to 20 than for drivers age 21 and older. Adolescents also are
vulnerable to alcoholinduced brain damage, which could contribute to poor
performance at school or work. In addition, youthful drinking is associated with an
increased likelihood of developing alcohol abuse or dependence later in life. Early
intervention is essential to prevent the development of serious alcohol problems
among youth between the ages of 12 and 20. This Alcohol Alert describes some of
the most harmful consequences of underage drinking as well as prevention and
treatment approaches that can be applied successfully to meet the unique needs of
this age group.
Injury and Social Consequences
Underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs
combined. Some of the most serious and widespread alcoholrelated problems
among adolescents are discussed below.

Drinking and Driving: Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death
among youth ages 15 to 20. Adolescents already are at increased risk
through their relative lack of driving experience, and drivers younger than 21
are more susceptible than older drivers to the alcoholinduced impairment of
driving skills. The rate of fatal crashes among alcoholinvolved drivers
between 16 and 20 years old is more than twice the rate for alcoholinvolved
drivers 21 and older.
Suicide: Alcohol use interacts with conditions such as depression and stress
to contribute to suicide, the third leading cause of death among people
between the ages of 14 and 25. In one study, 37 per cent of eighth grade
females who drank heavily reported attempting suicide, compared with 11 per
cent who did not drink.

Sexual Assault: Sexual assault, including rape, occurs most commonly

among women in late adolescence and early adulthood, usually within the
context of a date. In one survey, approximately 10 per cent of female high
school students reported having been raped. Research suggests that alcohol
use by the offender, the victim, or both, increases the likelihood of sexual
assault by a male acquaintance.

The Link between Early Alcohol Use and Alcohol Dependence

Early alcohol use may have longlasting consequences. People who begin drinking
before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence at some
time in their lives compared with those who have their first drink at age 20 or older. It
is not clear whether starting to drink at an early age actually causes alcoholism or
whether it simply indicates an existing vulnerability to alcohol use disorders. For
example, both early drinking and alcoholism have been linked to personality
characteristics such as strong tendencies to act impulsively and to seek out new
experiences and sensations. Some evidence indicates that genetic factors may
contribute to the relationship between early drinking and subsequent alcoholism.
Environmental factors may also be involved, especially in alcoholic families, where
children may start drinking earlier because of easier access to alcohol in the home,
family acceptance of drinking, and lack of parental monitoring.
Some schoolbased programs are aimed at adolescents who have already begun
drinking. Preliminary research also has found promise in high schoolbased
motivational programs that encourage selfchange in problem drinkers.
Figure 1: Number of patients under 18 years old with alcohol as a primary substance
200506 to 201213

Source: Public Health Org, UN (December 2013)

LITERATURE REVIEW
Every day teenagers are exposed to dangerous substances that can put their lives
on risk. The abuse of these kinds of substances can lead to dangerous accidents
and risky health situations. Most teenagers have knowledge of these substances but
they do not have the sufficient information or support to avoid their consumption.
Today underage drinking is a worldwide problem that is out of control, the abuse of
alcohol among teenagers has taken many lives away and this problem is
continuously growing with new generations. In order to give a solution to this
problem there are four important questions that have to be considered:

What can positively or negatively influence underage drinking?

What factors could make adults responsible of the consequences of

underage drinking?

Does the influence of parents negatively or positively affect underage

drinking?

What should be done to prevent underage drinking?

The review on the literature about underage drinking will focus on answering this
questions and giving enough information to give a solution to the problem.

What can positively or negatively influence underage drinking?

Many young teenagers and children are exposed to alcohol at some point in their
lives. They can be positively influenced or negatively influenced by the people
around them and that can save them from making mistakes or expose them to risky
behaviours. There are no ways of preventing teenagers from drinking alcohol, but
there are ways to help them make better decisions. Many factors can positively
influence underage drinking and parents are one of the most important influences in
the life of a teenager. Parents who find a way to be simultaneously strict and
supportive are most likely to raise children who dont engage in heavy drinking
(Mathews, 2010). The education that a child receives at home is what will determine
their future; parents play one of the most important roles especially in helping the
child become a good person for themselves and for the society. However most
parents are not aware of the positive influence they could have on their children.
Sexuality, drug consumption and alcohol abuse are themes that parents consider
complicated to explain to their children (York, 2012).
There are several things that parents could teach to their children. One of the most
important facts about underage drinking that parents must tell to their children is their
familys alcoholic history. Children must know if they have ancestors with alcoholic
problems or diseases, because their genetic could make them more prone to have
alcoholism problems in the future (U.S. News Health, 2010).
Some children experience alcohol consumption since a very early age, this not only
includes that they are consuming the alcohol, but they are seeing other people doing
it. Most families that consume alcohol during holidays or special occasions do it in
front of children and teenagers. This could be a bad example for the underage
because they grow in that environment and they start seeing it right and normal in
society. Children that socialize with alcohol consumers are more likely to taste the
alcohol and become addicted to it. Parents that consume alcohol are influencing
their childrens mind by showing them how to do it and the effects of it. Some parents
even give their children a taste of alcohol or allow them to drink inside their homes,
because they believe that if they allow them to drink under their supervision they will
not do it outside their homes.
This is where the influence of parents could be positively or negatively interpreted
and they could either help or affect their teenagers life (lawyers.com, 2012).
Furthermore, it could be hard for parents and teenagers to develop good
communication skills. Teens that have problems with their families tend to be more
prone to be alcohol consumers and become alcoholics. Parents that are not aware of
their teenagers and their needs, parents who do not support them and guide them
thru their development may cause the teenager to be under bad influences and
make wrong decisions. But it is not only the responsibility of parents to maintain a
good communication it is also the responsibility of teenagers to communicate their
feelings and anxieties to their families. As Tatyana Parsons states, The stressful
environment at home prevents them from studying. Their school performance may
also be affected by inability to express themselves (Parsons, 2013).
Therefore parents are responsible to create the base of a good communication with
their teenagers to make them feel comfortable in their homes and teenagers have to

maintain that communication. If this fails the teenager can fall in depression or
behaviour problems that could lead to alcohol abuse (NIAAA, 2009).
Adult children of alcoholics often dont relate their problems to having grown up in a
family with an alcoholic parent. Many of them have problems of depression,
aggression, or impulsive behaviour (Parsons, 2013). Parents that are aware of their
teenagers need can take action before they are more affected. Teenagers with
mental disorders, behaviour problem or traumas can be treated in order to prevent
them to fall into an addiction. Parents can take in consideration to take them to the
school counsellor, to a physician or a mental health professional. Furthermore,
parents need to understand that they are not alone and that they will not be judged
as bad parents for having teenagers with problems, in the other hand they will be
admired for supporting their teenagers (NIAAA, 2009).
In order to help their teenagers to prevent or overcome their addictions, parents
could enforce good strategies and maintain a good communication with them. They
could give their teenagers the freedom to express themselves and make it easy for
them to talk honestly with them. They could also teach them how to choose and
establish healthy friendships with people that will benefit them instead of harming
them. In addition to this it is very important that parents know that they are one of the
biggest influence for their teenagers and they have could give them a good example
by not doing what they do not want their teenagers to do (NIAAA, 2009).
Adults are not aware of the huge influence they could have on teenagers, and
teenagers are not aware of the huge support they could receive from adults.

What factors could make adults responsible of the consequences of underage

drinking?

Parents could be in part responsible for their teenagers actions. Right or wrong
actions or decisions that teenagers take are influenced by their education and
values. If a parent states good values and provides good education to their children,
then their children are more prone to take good decisions and take actions that will
benefit them instead of hurting them. When a teenager does not receive these
important values in education, they could easily get lost at the time of making a
decision and they could get in serious trouble.
Although some adults ignore that they have some responsibility to teach their
teenagers the consequences of the alcohol consumption, they can get in serious
trouble if their teenagers fall into this addiction. There are liabilities laws against
parents that allow under ages to consume alcoholic beverages, these laws punish
parents with fines and even to spend some time in jail. Furthermore, there are some
states in the United States that allow parents to let their teenagers to drink inside
their homes, but there are sixteen states in the country that make parents
responsible if their teenagers consume alcohol and they get into a car accident
(Newsroom, 2012).
Parents could get in trouble even if they ignore that their teenagers are consuming
alcohol, the authorities do not care if you were supervising the situation or not. If a
teenager gets in trouble and puts another persons life in risk, the parents could be
responsible. For this reason, parents should be careful with the education they give

to their children and teenagers have to be aware of the consequences their parents
could have if they make mistakes. It is very common for teenagers that are attending
High School to have parties at their homes; teenagers believe that a good way to
outstand and socialize in school is making parties, but not only that. The more risky
parties are, the more popular they can became, and therefore many teenagers make
the wrong decision of providing alcohol to their parties. There are many ways that
teenagers can get alcohol, they can get it from their own homes while their parents
are not there, they can get it from older friends and sometimes even from family
members (About.com, 2012).
There are occasions where the parents are aware that teenagers are providing
alcohol to their parties, and they help them obtain the alcohol. This is a huge
irresponsibility and it leads to tragic consequences. Most parents believe that
allowing their teenagers to drink at their homes and measuring the amount of alcohol
they consume is a good idea because they can be under control. The reality of this is
that they break the rules; they cross the line with their children and lose the respect
they could have to their parents. Furthermore, parents who do this do not take
serious the health of their children, providing alcohol under supervision is not only a
bad decision but is also attempting against their own childrens health.
Teenagers are seriously affected by the effects of the alcohol. Alcohol can harm their
immune system making them prone to illnesses, mental disorders damaging their
brain for the rest of their lives and affecting their development. Therefore it is very
important for parents to know how they are responsible for the consequences of
underage drinking. Parents need to understand that it is not only a privilege they can
give to their teenagers once in a while and control it. They can lose the control and
mark their lives forever and also they can get into serious trouble if they do not
prevent their teenagers from drinking alcohol.

Does the influence of parents negatively or positively affect underage

drinking?

It is know that a child develops his or her personality depending on the education
that the parents provide. Parents are in charge of giving a child directions of how to
do things, explain to them why do things exist and how are they created.
Furthermore, parents are in charge of teaching their children what is right and what
is wrong. This could be a hard task due to the variety of things that can harm or
benefit them. A parent has to have the patience of guiding their children thru the right
directions if this is not done the correct way, the result could be dangerous.
When a parent does not know what he or she is doing, when they are irresponsible
and unconscious they tend to make mistakes during the education of their children.
Parents that are irresponsible tend to not pay attention to their kids; they ignore
when their kids are calling them or asking them for help. They ignore the needs of
their children and these are signals that they are not really educating them. Children
with these parenthood problems are educating themselves and surviving by doing
what they see in other people or what their instinct tells them. With the time children
start to develop a bad personality and bad attitudes. Children with lack of parental
attention are prone to instability and bad behaviour, and when they enrol school they
start having difficulties socializing with others (Redmond, 2012).

When children start growing with this lack of attention, they begin having attention
problems at school. They do not follow directions given by their teachers, they do not
pay attention during class, therefore they do not learn. Students with these types of
problems do not go too far in school, these students tend to drop school and
sometimes they do not even finish their High School education. This chain continues
over their lifetime, they get a job and since they did not learned how to follow
directions or how to pay attention to simple tasks, they do not have the capability to
perform their jobs. This incapability to perform a job tends to leave the person
unemployed, therefore they start committing crimes to obtain money (Redmond,
2012). This lack of education leads to addictions, a child that was not educated and
suffered from lack of attention tends to become addicted to drugs that make them
feel more confident. Alcohol is a drug that makes people feel secure and encourages
them to do things that they would not do when they are sober. These attitudes are
very common in teenagers and if they are not treated the right way the lack of
education can lead to fatal accidents and terrible consequences.
In the other hand there are very positive things that can occur if a parent is
responsible and provides a good education to their children. A parent that pays close
attention to their children and takes the time to explain to them the difference
between right and wrong makes the child conscious and responsible too. When a
parent is always responding to a childs questions and makes a strong connection
with the child, they help in the positive development of the child. Parents that take
education serious make their children feel confident about themselves and they tend
to not have difficulties at school. If parents continue with this positive education, their
children will be very close to be successful in every aspect of their lives. Children
that have their parents attention at every moment do not feel the need to socialize
with other people that could harm them or be a bad influence, also they do not feel
temped to consume substances that affect them, such as alcohol. Children that
grown under attention and control with positive education tend to become
responsible teenagers and good people for society (Essortment, 2011).
Therefore, the influence of parents can really affect underage drinking. It can
positively affect by preventing their teenagers to drink or they can affect them in a
negative way making them prone to commit mistakes and develop a necessity for
alcohol consumption.

What should be done to prevent underage drinking?

Underage drinking has become a serious addiction among teenagers, this are
statistics of teenagers that have consumed alcohol from the age of thirteen to twenty
years old. (Statistics of underage drinking by age and percentage by: Nancy
Leanos.) This graph shows how at the age of thirteen teenagers start consuming
alcohol and at the age of eighteen the amount of teenagers with an alcohol problem
has increased at an alarming rate. There are many things in life that we consider
important and dangerous for society; the global warming, unemployment, health
insurance, abortion and many other problems that affect society. These problems
are publish every day in the newspapers, announced all the time in the news and
studied deeply to find a solution, but there is not much being done to solve the
problem of underage drinking. Underage drinking is a global problem, although it
does not call the attention of Scientifics and the Government does not invest much

on finding a solution, there are millions of teenagers in the world that consume
alcohol. This problem does not only affect the teenagers, this problem affects the
families, friends and people surrounding them. There are associations and
programs that teach teenagers about the risks of the alcohol, but these programs are
not going to make a difference on the teenager by just telling them the dangers.
There should be activities that the teenagers could get involved so that they could
learn and apply what they are learning. One thing that could be done is informing the
teenagers about the effects, consequences and dangers of alcohol and then having
them go to other schools and teach other teenagers what they learned. This kind of
activities will make the teenagers learn and participate giving them the education to
prevent them from alcohol consumption.
Moreover, there should also be formed a program where teenagers could be tested
to discover if they are consuming alcohol. This could be a questionnaire constructed
to analyse the teenagers response and discover if they are consuming alcohol.
There could also be a blood test authorized by the parents and done every once in a
while. These tests could let the parents know if their teenagers are having problems
with this substance and they could get help on time before it becomes an addiction.
The education adults they give to their children and the effort they make to teach
them about the substances and its effects can make a huge difference in the
teenagers life. For this reason parents should be advised about this problem and
how they can help to solve it. There could be a class that parents should have to
assist when they become parents, this class should be voluntary but at the same
time forced to take. When parents ask for food stamps or other type of help they
should be forced to assist to this class in order to inform them and give them tips of
what they can do to help their families and the society. Consequently parents who
do not ask for this type of help would not have to take this class, but there could also
be a class held at schools where parents would have to attend in order to register
their children to school. This might be complicated and there could be a lot of
complains, but it may really help develop a better society.
In conclusion there could be many ways to prevent underage drinking and its
consequences, it is very easy if there is cooperation and consciousness. This
problem could be solved and many lives could be saved. The community and the
Government could take it more serious and focus more in the future generations
instead of being worried about the elections, but it has to call more the attention of
them. Unfortunately there has to occur a huge tragedy before this problem could call
the attention of them and they could invest in it.

NEED AND SCOPE

NEED
The need for the study of effect on underage drinking has become very vital as today
many youth are suffering and destroying their life because of excessive alcohol
consumption. Alcohol is the drug of choice among youth. Many young people are
experiencing the consequences of drinking too much, at too early an age. As a
result, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in this country.
Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of
underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes,
1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other
injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning
So it is necessary to understand the effect of underage drinking and give possible
solution to come up with this social evil spreading in society.

SCOPE
The scope of this research is to give possible solution and to find out the various
ways to reduce the effect of alcohol consumption among the youth. Many studies
have been done on this issue but it failed to reduce the impact, by our research we
are aiming to find out what are the cause that leads to underage drinking and what
its after effect. It will help various body to look after the matter and find out optimum
solution for the problem which has become one of the major menace country is
facing today.

OBJECTIVES
Objective:
1. The goal of this article is to review critically the extant literature on the effect
of underage drinking on youth.
2. To examine the short- and long-term consequences that arises from underage
alcohol consumption.
3. To examine the social and emotional consequences of underage drinking.

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
Respected Sir/Madam,
I student of MBA, Lovely Professional University kindly request you to respond to the
enclosed questionnaire. The questionnaire is based on Effect of underage drinking
on youth. This research will look to find on what sort of underage alcohol
consumption leads to threat of life of youngster. It is a request that the respondent
answers all the questions truthfully as it will contribute largely to our research. Time
period (half an hour) should be taken to answer this questionnaire.
Thanking You,

Name:
Occupation:
1. age?
17 or younger
18-20
21 or older
2. gender?
Male
Female
3. Have you ever consumed alcohol at a bar?
Yes
No
4. How often do you drink alcohol?
least once a week
At least once a month
Less than once a month

5. Have you ever ? (Check all that apply)

Been arrested because you used alcohol
Driven under the influence of alcohol
Been injured because you used alcohol
Been drunk at a party
None
6. Have you successfully used a fake ID to obtain alcohol?
Yes
No
7. Have you even purchased alcohol without an ID?
Yes
No

8. Do you know any friends who consume alcohol at bars even though they are
under 21?
Yes
No
9. What is potential reasons do you think for the underage drinking problem?
(Check all that apply)
Low bar entrance age
Influence caused by friends
Escapism (pressure)
They wish to fit in or be accepted by their friends or peers
Addiction towards drinking
Other
10. Do you think underage drinking is a

Serious problem
Not At All A Problem
Minor problem

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