Similarly, alcoholism is the worst health behavior I would prefer because it causes emotional consequences such as frustration and anger. The emotional distress would inhibit the child from developing resilience when interacting with peers and parents, resulting in violence or rebellion. Furthermore, the emotional consequences of drinking might lead to disrupted conduct behaviors such as being antisocial, resulting in rebelliousness. In other words, the behavior would affect the child’s future by hindering critical elements of life, such as socialization.
Furthermore, the behavior has financial consequences, including social costs and individual costs. Alcoholism has a social cost of $249 billion, including health insurance and criminal justice cost. Since a child lacks financial stability, all expenses affect a parent’s consumption. For instance, expenses to buy the two drinks daily will alter parent’s consumption or increase the likelihood of vandalism to obtain the money. Since alcoholism amounts to over 25% of medical expenses in the country, the parents would also cover the expenses (Donatelle, 2011). This would be an added cost to the family. The time spent in hospitals for medication