ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Teen frequent binge drinking rates have decreased in recent years, but the decrease isn’t equal among all teens, a study from University of Michigan researchers found.
Frequent binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks in a row in at least twice in the past two weeks.
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Researchers analyzed data from eigth, 10th and 12th graders sampled between 1991 and 2015.
The date came from more than one million youth as part of an ongoing series of national surveys from the Monitoring the Future study.
The data showed that binge drinking among 13-year-olds declined from 5 percent in 1991-98 to 2.6 percent in 2007-15, and the rate of frequent binge drinking in the 18-year-olds dropped from 20 percent to 14.8 percent.
Despite those decreases, researchers said that the decrease was slower among black youth, adolescent girls and adolescents of a low socioeconomic status.
"Boys' alcohol use has decreased more than girls' use so that there is a narrower gender gap in drinking," said study co-author Megan Patrick, a research associate professor at the Institute for Social Research Survey Research Center. "This could be due to changes in drinking norms, and also changes in marketing strategies to target young female drinkers."
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Bohyun Joy Jang, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Survey Research Center at the ISR, said researchers think national and state-level programs targeted at drinking were behind the decline, but that the message may not be reaching black youth or teens of a lower socioeconomic status.
"Black adolescents have typically been at lower risk for alcohol use, although in recent years the difference appears to be narrowing because frequent binge drinking among white adolescents is decreasing faster than it is among black adolescents," Patrick said.
Researchers also believe the decrease may be because teens are connecting through social media more than at parties.
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