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

Who Answers?

Study says parents shouldn’t drink with their teens

It’s not uncommon for parents to serve their teenagers alcohol as a way to teach responsible drinking habits. While attending Los Gatos high school in the South Bay, I experienced this first hand, going to many keg parties where a parent was filling the plastic cups with Coors Light.

Usually, the parents felt it was better that their teenager drink with their friends in a controlled environment where car keys could be taken at the door. But sometimes the parents ended up getting drunk themselves and their role as supervisor quickly deteriorated.

Also, it’s not unusual for parents to serve their teenagers wine at the dinner table on special occasions. Many of us would assume this is a healthy “European” approach to dealing with teenagers and alcohol. It might take away some of the stigma around drinking.

A team of European researchers set out to test the theory that parents can guide their teenagers into drinking responsibly by serving them alcohol. They looked at 428 Dutch families with two children between the ages of 13 and 15. Parents and teens completed questionnaires on drinking habits at the outset and again one and two years later.

The study results, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, found that the more teenagers were allowed to drink at home, the more they drank outside of home. The reverse was also true, with out-of-home drinking leading to more drinking at home.

What’s more, teens who drank under their parents’ watch or on their own had an elevated risk of developing alcohol-related problems. Drinking problems included trouble with school work, missed school days and getting into fights with other people, among other issues.

The findings, according to the lead researcher on the study, Dr. Haske van der Vorst, suggest that teen drinking begets more drinking — and, in some cases, alcohol problems — regardless of where and with whom they drink.

“If parents want to reduce the risk that their child will become a heavy drinker or problem drinker in adolescence,” van der Vorst of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, says “they should try to postpone the age at which their child starts drinking.”

source: San Francisco Chronicle

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Sleep problems persist, but there’s still hope for recovering alcoholics, new study finds

Sleep was an issue at the beginning for “Joe,” a recovering alcoholic from Evanston, but two years and nine months down the line, instead of drinking to pass out, he sleeps through the night. “Now it’s a pleasure to live. That’s what motivated me,” said Joe, who asked that his real name be withheld. Joe’s….

Governments’ Drug-Abuse Costs Hit $468 Billion, Study Says

Government spending related to smoking and the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs reached $468 billion in 2005, accounting for more than one-tenth of combined federal, state and local expenditures for all purposes, according to a new study. Most abuse-related spending went toward direct health care costs for lung disease, cirrhosis and overdoses, for example,….

Inpatient or Outpatient Alcohol Treatment Program

Inpatient alcohol treatment programs are ideal for heavy dependence and strong addictions. Outpatient treatment programs can work in mild cases of alcohol dependence. Most people find that a combination of treatment, inpatient followed by outpatient, is most effective. Do you really have to live at a treatment center in order to receive appropriate help for….

Dangers of Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse is steadily worsening because as more pain, anxiety, or attention deficit disorder medications are disbursed for legitimate purposes, many are being diverted to sales on the street for profit. The prescription pill business is big business on the street with a vast amount of collaboration between users, dealers, and doctors. The rapid….

Binge drinking: A Victorian legacy

Binge drinking, violence, contentious parades – all modern day problems, but in Northern Ireland it seems their roots stretch back more than 100 years. In Victorian Ireland alcohol abuse and binge drinking were rife, thanks to the introduction of “ether drinking”. “Ether was the alcopop of the 1880s and its use became endemic in Londonderry….