High school health curricula across West Virginia are required to cover drug and alcohol use; teachers frequently mention recognizing the dangers of being peer-pressured into using these substances, but what moves West Virginian students to engage in substance abuse?

In a poll, about if students felt FOMO [fear of missing out] or peer pressure in the instance revolving illegal substances, conducted about the student body at Wheeling Park High School 78% of students are afraid of FOMO as a reason to go to parties instead of peer pressure, none felt peer pressure as a reason to drink alcohol, and only 11% said peer pressure was the direct reason for smoking or vaping. 

“I believe that FOMO falls under the same umbrella of peer pressure,” said Katelyn Davenport, Prevention Programs Coordinator at Youth Services System Inc., bringing up an important question: Is there another factor that leads to underage substance abuse? 

Students and underage teens can get a hold of these substances from friends, gas stations, or vape shops, and even from their parents. The students who are most affected by substances are those who have an increased adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs can be several things, such as abuse or neglect, substance use within the home, a witness or victim of violence, food insecurity, or any form of trauma. People often use substances as a coping skill.

Wheeling Park’s own health department has chapters on drugs, alcohol, and smoking and vaping to bring awareness to high schoolers. 

“We touch on peer pressure because all of them at the high school age want to be accepted, but they gotta realize they’re making a risky choice if they decide to go down that road,” said Michael Jebbia, health teacher at Wheeling Park High School.

Davenport believes there can be many changes made to the current high school curricula.

“The most important elements to help lower the rusk of substance use, as well as mental health challenges, are teaching and ecouraging these of coping skills and normalizing talking about mental wellbeing,” Davenport said, “Stigma is a huge barrier to all ages because stubstance use has been vilified by society, so therefor substance use is perceives as a moral failure, substance se disorder is a disease in the brain, not a choice.”

Mental well-being and health should be emphasized more in the case of substance abuse with high school curriculum. This brings up a nuanced subject: do some curriculums or public service announcements unconsciously villainize people who use illegal substances by defaulting to teaching kids to be wary of peer pressure? Instead, teaching the stressors or the indicators that can lead to substance use disorders will be a better preventative curriculum.

While peer pressure and FOMO are serious reasons young adults and teens abuse drugs and alcohol, kids are less likely to be persuaded or feel the need to abuse these substances if they have the proper education to deter them from using.