HealthTuesday, September 4, 2007 2:52 PM CDT

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Don't ignore teen drinking

By Alan Markwood

Parents of pre-teens and teens determine what issues to make a priority in their family’s discussions and rules. One topic that may not make the list unless it’s already a family issue is underage drinking.

Some parents think their son or daughter isn’t tempted to drink. Some parents think their own rules or opinions don’t make a difference.

Parents need to know three important facts:

1. Underage drinking is a big problem.

2. What they say and do has a tremendous influence on their children’s behavior.

3. It’s not just “the other kid” who can get into trouble with alcohol.

Underage drinking contributes to all three leading causes of death among 10- to 24-year-olds: motor vehicle crashes, homicide and unintentional injuries other than crashes. In more than one-third of the deaths in each of those categories, alcohol plays a major role.

Alcohol use by young people also contributes to other problems, such as rape and other forms of violence. Because young people typically drink to get drunk, they are at risk for alcohol poisoning, alcoholism, and brain impairment. Underage drinking substantially increases the odds against healthy development.

Although the opinions of peers play a large role as young people move beyond childhood, teens still report that their greatest reason not to drink is to not disappoint their parents. A teen may not always listen politely to a parent’s warnings and concerns, but they may hear a lot more than they acknowledge. Parents may not be able to guarantee that their teen conforms to all expectations, but clearly stated expectations — such as, “We expect you to stay away from beer, wine, and liquor until you are 21” — usually make a difference.

There is a misconception that youth experiencing success in their lives — such as good grades, and involvement in sports and other activities — either aren’t using alcohol or are immune to any bad effects. This is not true.

Young people are deluged with alcohol promotions in all sorts of media, ranging from overt ads to paid “product placements” in popular movies. A young person doesn’t need to have other trouble in their lives to start using alcohol and develop one or more of the many problems that can come from that use. The fact that some teens drink and don’t get hurt doesn’t mean drinking is safe: it just that they have been lucky.

Community prevention groups try to identify and decrease some of the influences toward alcohol use that can be present in young people’s lives. But this is a long-term endeavor. In the short term, parents are the main protection that young people have against the commercial or social influences toward drinking. Whether or not parents abstain from alcohol themselves, they can address the issue of underage drinking.

Public health studies and brain science have identified the reasons why underage drinking is unwise. Parents need to feel empowered to take that information and use it to raise the issue of underage drinking before they are compelled to confront it in their family. Being a parent is not easy, and recognizing true threats is challenging. But the hard lessons learned by many parents of teens support the idea of talking about underage drinking as a family even before teen years, and continuing that discussion.

Helpful resources for parents can be found in the “Resources for Parents” section of the Heartland Coalition for Youth and Families Web site, www.heartlandcoalition.org/parentres or in the “Prevention” section of Chestnut Health Systems’ Web site, http://www.chestnut.org/Prevention/central/links.htm.

Alan Markwood is prevention area coordinator of Chestnut Health Systems.

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