Survey finds fewer High School Students drinking

A new survey, sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, finds most high school students say they don’t drink alcohol. MADD’s National President, Jan Withers, says they asked 695 students “Have you ever drunk alcohol?” and 69.3% said “NO”, and 8.1% said “I used to, but not any more.” “Teens are getting the good news that they have the power to say no.  Three out of four teens that were surveyed say that they do not drink alcohol.” MADD is releasing the survey results as part of Red Ribbon Week, designed to raise awareness and dangers of drugs and alcohol among youth.  Withers gives the top five reasons high school students gave for not drinking alcohol. “Number one is they said it’s illegal.  The second reason is that they don’t like the effects it can have on their health.  The third reason is, that they don’t like the effects on their grades.  The fourth reason is that they say that their parents don’t approve and the fifth reason is that they don’t want to be like the other kids who do drink.” Withers tells why she thinks high schoolers are telling the truth about their drinking. “It is anonymous and it is also supported by other research that between 27-39% of high school students drink, so this is fairly comparable.” The survey results also showed the importance of parents as role models, concludes Withers. “It is such an important issue and that is why we as parents want to be continually discussing this with our kids throughout whatever we do and so it is extremely important that we are good role models and we are talking about the dangers of it before age 21 and the consequences.” MADD retained Survey Monkey to provide a random sample of high school students, nationwide.   The survey of 29 questions was conducted between September 5-15.