Those who drink to be socially “in” are only kidding themselves. In fact, drinking only makes things worse: Not only is drinking more likely to make teenagers feel like social outcasts, but it may be causing their isolation. After analyzing health data on 8,271 adolescents from 126 schools (grades 7 to 12), three sociologists found a relationship in every type of school between drinking and feelings of loneliness and not fitting in—but these feelings were especially substantial among self-reported drinkers in schools where fellow students tended to avoid alcohol and were tightly connected to each other.
—“Drinking,Socioemotional Functioning, and Academic Progress in SecondarySchool,” by Robert Crosnoe, et al., Journal ofHealth and Social Behavior, June 2012