Binge drinking is a growing problem, many experts say—an opinion borne out by many studies on teen alcohol abuse. Some believe that stress—and indirectly, parents—may unintentionally feed the phenomenon. According to Gabriele McCormick, writing for Bethesda Magazine, reports that many teens are binge drinking more frequently because of increased pressure to do well in school. “Many of the teens I talked to said they felt their parents had extremely high expectations of them,” McCormick told The Washington Post. “They were expected to get good grades, take AP classes, be stellar athletes, be in clubs, participate in extracurricular activities and above all, get into a top college. They could only stand so much rigidity in their scheduling and pressure to perform. For many, that translated into letting loose on the weekends and getting trashed. It’s not that they blamed their parents; but they felt that if they worked that hard during the week, they were entitled to party that hard on the weekends.” (The Washington Post)