Mothers Against Drinking and Driving (MADD) and State Farm Insurance recently teemed up to conduct a survey of high school kids and alcohol consumption. Although only about 700 students were surveyed, more than three quarters of them from around the country said they did not consume alcohol. The numbers were fairly to those for 10th grade students across the country found by the Monitoring The Future Study. However, it is far from what was found for 12th grade students, where 42% of them said they had consumed alcohol within the past 30 days.
In the MADD survey, the top five reasons listed for teens not drinking were:
1. It’s illegal
2. Effect on health
3. Effect on grades
4. Parents don’t approve
5. Don’t want to be like others who drink
The findings for the poll were released to coincide with Red Ribbon Week, also known as national drug prevention week, which is October 23 – 31.