Data from the National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program has shown that one of the country's four major psychological disorders is alcoholism, and that further, this disorder is most likely to begin in the adoledistress, especially in the home and school environment; and (2) social learning in which teen drinking is viewed as the result of parental and peer modeling.
In an extensive review of theories of the etiology of alcohol abuse, Davison and Neale (1982) concluded that the Tension Reduction Theory of Alcoholism (People drink to reduce tension and discomfort due to stress and/or psychological distress) is a view that is maximally relevant to why people begin drinking. Since most alcohol abusers begin their drinking in adolescence (Helzer, 1988), the Tension Reduction Theory can be seen as highly relevant to adolescent drinking.
This study examined this Tension Reduction Theory as it applies to adolescent drinking by examining for relationships between frequencies of teens' drinking behavior and between measures of psychological distress and stress. Further, in order to assess the degree of relevance of the theory for adolescent drinking, frequency of alcohol drinking was their drinking in adolescence (Helzer, 1988), the Tension Reduction Theory can be seen as highly relevant to adolescent drinking.
This study examined this Tension Reduction Theory as it applies to adolescent drinking by examining for relationships between frequencies of teens' drinking behavior and between measures of psychological distress and stress. Further, in order to assess the degree of relevance of the theory for adolescent drinking, frequency of alcohol drinking was examined for relationship to five explanations for drinking, one of which is tension-reduction. The five reasons examined were reasons mentioned in the literature as relevant to adolescent alcohol drinking (Knopf, 1984). It was expected that if the T...