Adolescent Alcohol Use Is Common Psychoactive

Adolescents are in the developmental stage of transition from childhood to adulthood, a stage during which they claim certain identities in favor of others and the resultant configuration of possible selves (Erikson, 1968, 1980; Marcia, 1966, 1980). The longterm studies of the Monitoring the Future (MTF) and the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey have reported that adolescent alcohol use is the common psychoactive substances in United States for a long time (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012; Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, &Schulenberg, 2012). Many adolescents experiment with alcohol, but some progress to misuse and incur serious consequences. Adolescent problematic alcohol use associated with the various negative outcomes (e.g., violence, drunk driving, injuries, and risky sexual behavior) and also places them at risk for the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in adulthood. A more contemporary social cognitive model that focuses on the cognitive outcomes of identity development indicated that possible selves are cognitive structures that serve to regulate future behavior. The schema model of the self-concept in which cognitions about the self now (self-schemas) and in the future (possible selves) have been shown the power of regulating behavior. The modification of possible selves among adolescents may be an effective strategy to mitigate adolescent problematic alcohol use. Although many risk factors of problematic alcohol use have been identified, few factors that protect against problematic alcohol use are known. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the protective effects of having a most important hoped-for or feared possible self related to academics in 8th grade on level of alcohol consumption and alcohol misuse in 9th grade.