Drinking age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Drinking age - Essay Example Using the research conducted in 2005 by White and Hayman via ‘Australian Secondary School Students and Drug Use Survey’, reports show that approximately 40% out of samples from the 16-17 year-old drinking Australian population confessed that parents bear chief influence in alcoholic consumption. Additionally, such findings had no substantial variance from among those who obtained influence from friends through the peer pressure of drinking on a weekly basis. Still the question remains what age must one be legally allowed to drink and to what extent should it be tolerated relative to other forms of addiction. White and Hayman (2006) examined whether parental control of drinking may be attributed to the occurrence of risky drinking for short-term harm (RSOD) and alcohol-related difficult behaviors such as physical and verbal assault from a sample of underage drinkers. Research indicates that 86% of adolescents 16-17 years of age are existing alcohol consumers whereas some 20% appear to be weekly RSOD and more than 34% get involved in at least one case of alcohol-linked problem with conduct. Moreover, it is found that mere banning of alcohol drinking for the sake of youth 18 is not practically sufficient. Fresh plans for appropriate mediation and avoidance are apparently essential according to the study of parental supplication that was figured to impact lesser rates of RSOD and alcohol-related social behavior. This rather implies the likelihood that by changing the normal supply of alcohol from the source other than the parents to the parents alone, the shift may bring about good restrict ion to the amount of consumption and injury among the adolescents. However, as much as parental guidance toward alcohol supply control is considered one positive approach, it is quite unexplored and must therefore undergo thorough investigation as promising alternative (Dietze, Livingston,