Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Healthy parent-child ties can keep teenagers away from alcohol

A healthy parent-child relationship can have a preventive effect on the early drinking tendencies in a teenager, a new study suggests.

The study to be published in the May issue of Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs emphasises the role played by parents in bringing down drinking tendencies in a teenager.

According to the study, teenagers who feel that they can share their problems with parents are less prone to early drinking, compared to those who do not share such a relationship with their parents.

“Our work shows that the ‘preventive effect’ of a later drinking age is likely to be a side effect of a good parent-child relationship,” lead researcher Emmanuel Kuntsche of Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems said.

Teenage drinking is a serious problem in many parts of the world, including India. The study suggests that a healthy and frank communication between the parents and their teenaged child “trigger a spiral of healthy development during adolescence” that ultimately minimises the risk of developing alcohol related problems at an early age.

Kuntsche and colleagues surveyed 364 adolescents over a time of two years. The subjects were studied thrice in this duration and it was found that those who reported an early drinking age in the first phase yielded to more drinking by the second time.

The study found that only teenagers who share a ‘high quality’ relationship with their parents are less prone to develop alcohol related problems compared to their peers.

Researchers define a high-quality relationship as one where teenagers felt they could discuss their problems with their parents and they in turn respected the child’s feelings.

Previous studies in this field suggested that the age of the child is an important factor that determines whether they will eventually develop alcohol-related problems.

Kuntsche said parents should remember that there role is important when it comes to their children’s risk of substance abuse.

Be attentive to children’s needs in general, he said, emphasising that may be one way to protect the children from developing drinking problems.

source: The Hindu

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Vancouver's supervised injection site can save health-care system $20 million: study.

Vancouver’s supervised drug injection site can save the Canadian health-care system as much as $20 million and substantially increase a population’s life span over a 10-year period, according to a study to be published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study, which used a computer simulation model, measured the projected impacts on Vancouver….

5 Signs Your Teen Needs Eating Disorder Treatment

Eating disorders frequently appear first during the teen years, but may develop during childhood or at any time of life. Eating disorders can be caused by genetic, biological, behavioral, psychological, and social factors. Girls are more than two and a half times as likely as boys to have an eating disorder. Common eating disorders include….

Treating teens and adults for substance abuse

The number of teenagers and adults influenced under the substance abuse is greatly increasing worldwide. Substance abuse largely affects the physical and the mental state of a person. Substance abuse affects the body of an individual depending on various the factors like the age, gender, quantity of the drugs taken on regular basis etc. Therefore,….

Teens and alcohol

Alcopops. Ever hear of those? Not many people have heard of that term, but they are a drink that is growing in popularity among young people. Alcopop, broken down, is “alcohol” and “pop” (as in soda pop). They are sweet alcoholic beverages that often is fizzy and has had fruit juice added to them. One….

‘Teach’ over fives about alcohol

A whisky expert has called for children aged five and over to be “educated” about alcohol in a bid to combat its misuse. Whyte and Mackay master blender Richard Paterson said it was important to shape children’s behaviour around alcohol from a young age. Mr Paterson said:”We need to talk to young people about the….