Female adolescent drinking behavior: potential hazards.
A recent national survey on the use of alcoholic beverages revealed that 93% of boys and 87% of girls in their senior year of high school had experimented with alcohol, and more than half of the country's seventh graders had tried drinking at least once during the previous year (1973). A review of the literature confirms this apparent increase in drinking by boys and girls. This article reports the increasing use of alcohol by girls and the associated risks. Some predisposing personal and behavioral characteristics are discussed, such as: the particular hazards of fetal syndrome; the significant impact of the physiological and psychological effects of menstruation and other related female phenomena; and the confusion in sex roles (resulting from the inability to freely combine masculine and feminine personality characteristics within onself in a women's liberation environment) accelerating "risk" possibilities in girls.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D014933:Women's Rights