Kids, Alcohol and Drugs - Facing Facts and Reducing the Risk

Adolescence is a time for experimentation. It is the necessary developmental process in achieving independence and competence in a number of areas. And young adulthood is also a volatile time, with intense social and school pressures, and risky behaviors we don\'t like to think our kids are engaged in. Taking drugs, drinking alcohol and using tobacco are some of these. A 16-year old is more likely to die from an alcohol-related situation than any other cause, and that includes car crashes, unintentional injuries, murder and suicide.

How do you talk to your youngster or teen about drugs and alcohol? What will make the difference between healthy development and behavior, and youthful alcohol and drug abuse? Let\'s look at drinking and other chemical use among adolescents today, the importance of parental awareness and communication, and the roles of school, peers and community in prevention.

The earlier a child starts drinking, the greater the risk is for that adolescent to become alcohol dependent at some point

A 1998 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that kids who started drinking before age 15 were four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who began drinking at age 21. Overall, the risk for alcohol dependence decreases by 14 percent with each increasing year of age of drinking onset.

When there is a family history of alcoholism, there is some genetic predisposition to the disease, even when the parents are in successful recovery. Parents should not only present healthy behaviors, they also need to know what\'s out there, where their kids are going and with who.

They need to talk with their kids about addiction as a disease, and why not to use or drink. In families with alcoholic histories, the susceptibility to addiction can be approached like other genetically linked chronic diseases.

Some parents think that alcohol is a safer bet than drugs for their kids, but alcohol can be the deadliest drug of all. Parents may condone alcohol use at parties in their own homes. Underage drinking is clearly illegal, and kids just drink to get drunk, sometimes with tragic consequences. Cases involving serious or fatal injuries following a drinking party hosted by parents may also have implications for financially devastating civil law suits.

All parents need to open their eyes to the current youth environment . An eighth grader with five bucks can get a marijuana joint in a few hours Any child can be vulnerable. And a child taking prescription medicines for mood and behavior disorders sometimes shares these medications with friends for a high. Kids have found the Internet is a rich resource for prescription and psychotropic drugs, including mood-altering drugs that are called something else.

Talk to your kids about alcohol and its consequences. Since we know that many eighth graders are drinking, middle school is hardly too young to start.

Research shows that young people do care what their parents think, and those who get the message to not use, stay abstinent longer and abuse drugs and alcohol less frequently than those who have not had conversations with their parents about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Let your expectations of \"no use\" be known.

School and community involvement

Adolescents need firm parenting and clear behavioral expectations from parents - along with demonstrated warmth and emotional support. They also need to develop their own initiative, often found in structured youth activities. It is here that kids often develop diverse peer relationships.

Adolescents need to acquire social capital, or they may find it in the structure of a gang. Peer pressure for engaging in risky behavior can be found in school-sanctioned activities, too. One boy explained that his teammates often want to party, \"So you give in and do what they do,\" he said.

Many communities have school or community based prevention programs. Hanley Center, is such a resource for Florida. Roots and Wings: Raising Resilient Children is a program for parents and young children. and identifies risk factors. Project Northland is a research-based program curriculum for middle-schools schools with parental involvement, extracurricular peer leadership and community-wide efforts for young adolescents in grades 6-8. The peer-led high school program, Class Action, is also effective in encouraging sustained alcohol and drug-free activities by staging \"court cases.\" The Atlas and Athena program, also facilitated by the Center, trains coaches and educates young athletes about steroids and encourages healthy, steroid-free lifestyles.

It really does take the community to raise healthy, resilient children, with prevention messages repeated and reinforced by informed parents and offered in engaging, healthy activities offered in school and in the community.

Hanley Center prevention and education programs are facilitated in Palm Beach and Broward Counties and across Florida, for youth, children and families and older adults. Hanley Center, http://www.hanleycenter.org, is a renowned treatment facility for gender and age-specific alcohol and chemical addictions, and a rich resource for family programs, prevention and education.

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