This document is one of seven publications contained in a series of materials for physicians on recognizing, intervening with, and treating adolescent alcoholism. The materials in this unit of study are intended to provide a framework for physicians' awareness, to present selected facts and information, to outline current thinking regarding factors involved in teenage alcoholism and substance abuse, and to explain models of alcoholism with emphasis on the disease model of alcoholism. It contains information that will enable the physician to: (1) advocate the importance of pursuing issues related to adolescent alcoholism; (2) describe the problem of teenage alcoholism in terms of prevalence and incidence; (3) explain factors which make dealing with teenage alcoholism difficult; (4) evaluate models regarding their development, evaluation, and efficacy in explaining alcoholism; (5) compare the natural history of alcoholism in adults and in adolescents; (6) define adolescence and list the adolescent's developmental tasks; (7) list factors which influence the adolescent's psychosocial development; and (8) discern in the family system which parameters do or do not contribute to problems of alcoholism and which factors do or do not contribute to regaining a good health status. (NB)