iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us

by Jean M. Twenge

The decline in trying alcohol is the largest in the youngest groups and by far the smallest among young adults. The decline is a steep black diamond mountain for 8th graders, a bunny hill for 12th graders, and a gently sloping cross-country ski course for young adults. Nearly all young adults have tried alcohol, and that has declined only slightly over the decades. What’s changed is the age when they first start drinking. In the early 1990s, the average 8th grader had already tried alcohol, but by 2014 the average 10th grader had not. That means most iGen teens are putting off trying alcohol until the spring of 10th grade or later; they are growing more slowly into the adult activity of drinking alcohol. Similar trends show up for alcohol use in the last month and in other surveys such as the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey of teens