Health News
Talking about drugs and alcohol often, and when children are at a young age, are two of the best things parents can do to prevent substance abuse by teenagers.
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Health News
Parents should talk to children about drugs and alcohol often, and firmly, but spend more time listening
Talking about drugs and alcohol often, and when children are at a young age, are two of the best things parents can do to prevent substance abuse by teenagers."As much as parents want to be the 'anti-drug,' as media campaigns encourage, the tricky part is doing it effectively, without alienating their kids or essentially lighting a joint for them," reports Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz of the Chicago Tribune.
One of the keys is to have conversations often and early on. "What you don't want is to be having this conversation after your child has already started drinking or smoking marijuana," said J. David Hawkins, founding director of the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington.
Nationwide, 71 percent of high school graduates have consumed alcohol, half have gotten drunk at least once, almost half have tried illegal drugs, and one-fourth have tried illegal drugs other than marijuana, the 2010 Monitoring the Future survey found. The annual poll, conducted by the University of Michigan, talked to 50,000 American teens.
Kentucky teens under 18 are among the least likely to drink alcohol of teens in the nation, the 2007-08 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed. Kentucky teens ranked 10th lowest, but were nearly on par with the national average when it came to binge drinking. (Read more)
The workshop "Guiding Good Choices" gives lessons to parents in how to deal with the issue. It advises parents to talk to their kids about drugs before adolescence, preferably when they're in the fifth or sixth grade. Parents should talk to their kids about people in their family that may have drinking or drug problems and how that affects them. They should set a family policy on drugs or alcohol and establish consequences. And they should plan to have the conversation every year.
Teens generally obey rules until they reach the eighth grade, when it becomes unclear to them whether or not drugs and alcohol are actually bad. Alison Birnbaum, a psychotherapist and social worker based in New Canaan, Conn., said talking about drugs is only 20 percent talking, and 80 percent listening, but parents should be firm. Parents should make clear they will be disappointed if the rules are broken.
Safety First, a teen drug-prevention project, advocates "Just Say Know," rather than "Just Say No." It provides kids with science-based information and asks parents to be honest, if selective, about their own history with alcohol and drugs. "Parents often worry that they're condoning drugs if they're not condemning them, but ... acknowledging the possibility that your kids might experiment sets you up to discuss what they should do if they get in trouble," Elejalde-Ruiz writes. (Read more)
- Marijuana Product That Can Be Smoked In E-cigarettes Reported To Be On The Rise In Oldham County Schools; Heroin Too
Oldham County school officials report that a waxy form of marijuana in e-cigarettes, as well as heroin, are becoming more prevalent among students, Taylor Riley reports for The Oldham Era. "At least eight students were taken to the hospital or medical...
- Almost One-third Of Teens Have Changed Their Health Habits After Looking Up Information On The Internet, Study Suggests
A decade-long study by researchers at Northwestern University about how teenagers use the Internet for health information found that almost one-third of adolescents report changing health habits after looking for information online, Lena H. Sun writes...
- U.s. Teens' Cigarette Use Drops To A New Low, But Use Of Alcohol Goes Up A Bit And More 12th Graders Are Smoking Marijuana
Teenagers' cigarette smoking dropped to a record low this year but alcohol use rose slightly after seven years of decline, according to a survey of 45,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th- graders for the National Institute of Drug Abuse. The survey also found...
- Directory Listing 2,500 Substance-abuse Treatment Resources In Kentucky Released; Every County Has At Least One Facility
There are 2,500 resources for substance abuse treatment in Kentucky, with at least one in each county, research at the University of Kentucky has found. "In addition to the 345 state-certified substance abuse treatment providers listed in the directory,...
- Kentucky Teens Under 18 Among Least Likely To Drink Alcohol, But Binge Drinking Among Them Is Nearly The National Average
About 6 percent (709,000 of 12 million) of U.S. children aged 12 to 14 drank alcohol in 2009, and nearly half got their drinks from their own home, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Because the data...