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Binge Drinking Above and Below Twice the Adolescent Thresholds and Health‐Risk Behaviors
Author(s) -
Hingson Ralph Waldo,
Zha Wenxing
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.13627
Subject(s) - binge drinking , demography , medicine , injury prevention , young adult , monitoring the future , youth risk behavior survey , suicide prevention , poison control , occupational safety and health , logistic regression , ethnic group , adolescent health , human factors and ergonomics , environmental health , psychology , substance abuse , psychiatry , gerontology , nursing , pathology , sociology , anthropology
Background Underage drinking has been associated with health‐risk behaviors: unintentional and unprotected sex; physical and sexual assault; suicide; homicide; traffic and other unintentional injuries; and overdoses. Five drinks consumed over 2 hours by adult males and 4 drinks by adult females typically produce blood alcohol levels ( BAL s) of ≥0.08%, which the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism considers binge drinking. Being smaller, young adolescents can reach adult binge‐drinking BAL s of ≥0.08% with fewer drinks. Previous research indicates boys ages 9 to 13 would reach ≥0.08% with 3 drinks, 4 drinks at ages 14 to 15, and 5 drinks at ages ≥16. For girls, ≥0.08% is reached with ≥3 drinks at ages 9 to 17 and ≥4 drinks at ages ≥18. This study explores whether, among a national sample of high school students, adolescent binge drinking at ≥twice versus