Teenage drinking: Why alcohol is damaging to children

An update of an ongoing WHO survey looking at alcohol intake in children reached media attention this week. Called the Health Behaviour In School-Aged Children survey it reported that Great Britain has the worst rate of child alcohol abuse worldwide, and more than half of children in England, Scotland and Wales have drunk alcohol by the age of 13.

These findings were gathered from data collected in 2021 from 280,000 children aged between 11 and 15 from 44 countries. This trend in adolescent drinking is particularly concerning because children’s brains are still developing so alcohol not only reduces brain capacity at this young age it speeds up the natural decline in brain function in the years to come.

What’s more, children and teenagers have less developed metabolic pathways for processing alcohol compared to adults, so alcohol remains in their bodies for longer periods, increasing the potential for toxicity and damage to the brain and other organs.

The brain continues to develop until the mid-20s, with certain areas, such as the prefrontal cortex responsible for decision-making, impulse control and behaviour, developing last.

Exposure to alcohol during this critical period can disrupt this development magnifying the less appealing teenage characteristics most of us are all too familiar with. Alcohol can also harm the neurons that transmit information throughout the brain and nervous system which are essential for learning and memory.

It is not a surprise that there are major concerns between alcohol in children and mental health issues. As well as this long term neuronal damage, alcohol affects neurotransmitter systems in the brain, including dopamine and serotonin, which play crucial roles in mood regulation, pleasure, and cognitive function.

So, as well as anxiety, depression and increased self-harm alcohol impairs judgment both when drunk and sober triggering risky behaviour and poor decision making.

Teenagers who drink alcohol are more likely to disinhibit normal precautions leading to injuries, loss of personal possessions, fighting, other violent behaviour and unprotected sex leading to disease and unwanted pregnancy. They have higher incidence of school absenteeism, suspension, lower grades and are less likely to take part in sport or other stimulating extracurricular activities.

Adolescents who start drinking are more likely to progress to chronic alcohol abuse which leads to a host of mental and physical health issues via a number of mechanisms:

Alcohol encourages unhealthy habits such as munching crisps or devouring a greasy kebab on the way home. Many people trying to give up smoking are familiar with the urge to succumb to temptation after a drink.

Unhealthy living increases the risk of cancer and other chronic disease and alcohol itself is converted into acetaldehyde, a carcinogen capable of damaging DNA repair mechanisms.

Alcohol damages healthy gut bacteria, leading to gut inflammation, indigestion, fatigue, demotivation in the work place and home. It impairs the body’s ability to absorb essential vitamins and minerals and in women increases blood levels of oestrogen which is why it particularly increases the breast cancer risk.

Alcohol is highly calorific and the drinks as a whole have a high sugar content, both contributing to weight gain and increasing the risk of diabetes and other diseases such as pancreatitis, fatty liver, hepatitis and eventually cirrhosis. Over time, the toxic effect of alcohol damages nerves causing loss of balance and peripheral neuropathy.

In conclusion, humans have been drinking alcohol socially for more than 10,000 years, and many of us enjoy its complex flavours and the pleasurable feelings that it can bring.

However, as most of us know from first-hand experience, drinking has a dark side which is particularly bleak in teens who are considerably more vulnerable to its negative health effects. Adolescence is a time of increased experimentation, risk-taking behaviour and exploring boundaries so it’s not a surprise alcohol is exploited. It’s clear from this report, however, that in the UK we need to improve awareness for the dangers of teenage drinking, increase constraints to access and not make it socially acceptable for kids to drink.