Are You a Problem Parent?

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University released the results of their National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents. It’s the 13th year they’ve done the back to school survey. This year, they’ve identified “problem parents” as increasing the risk that teens will smoke, drink or use drugs. They define problem parents as “those who fail to monitor their children’s school night activities, safeguard their prescription drugs, address the problem of drugs in their children’s schools, and set good examples.”

Here are some highlights of their findings:

• 50% of teens (12 – 17 years old) who come home after 10:00pm on a school night say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs
• 29% of teens who come home between 8:00pm and10:00pm on a school night say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs.
• Only 14% of parents say their teens usually leave the house to hang out with friends on school nights
• More teens said prescription drugs were easier to buy than beer (19% vs. 15%), the first time in the CASA survey’s history
• When teens who know prescription drug abusers were asked where those kids get their drugs:
  • 31% said from friends or classmates
  • 34% said from home, parents or the medicine cabinet
  • 16% said other
  • Only 9% said from a drug deale
• Drugs topped the list for the 13th year of the survey as the biggest concern teens face
• 28% of teens cite drugs as the biggest problem they face, compared to only 17% of parents who see drugs as the top teen concern
• Parents overwhelmingly say it is harder today to keep kids safe (84%) and to raise a teen “of good moral character” (72%)

According to Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president, “Preventing substance abuse among teens is primarily a Mom and Pop operation. It is inexcusable that so many parents fail to appropriately monitor their children, fail to keep dangerous prescription drugs out of the reach of their children and tolerate drug infected schools. The parents who smoke marijuana with children should be considered child abusers. By identifying the characteristics of problem parents we seek to identify actions that parents can take—and avoid—in order to become part of the solution and raise healthy, drug-free children.”

Read more about the CASA survey

technorati tags: CASA survey, teens, problem parents, drinking, drugs, prescription drugs, substance abuse

Survey shows underage drinkers get alcohol from adults, younger girls drinking more than boys

A nationwide survey, being released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), shows that more than half of the teens surveyed admitted to underage drinking and 40% of those teens got free alcohol from an adult. Among the youngest teens, girls were found to drink slightly more than boys, consistent with other findings of girls catching up to boys when it comes to underage drinking. (Read “Gender Equality in Teenagers Not Always Good for Girls”)

The survey asked detailed questions about the behavior and social situations involved in underage drinking and is based on combined data from the 2002 – 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) involving responses from 158,000 people ages 12 – 20 throughout the United States.

Notable findings included:

• More than half (53.9%) of all people aged 12 – 20 engaged in underage drinking in their lifetime, ranging from 11.0% of 12 year olds to 85.5% of 20 year olds.

• An average of 3.5 million people aged 12 – 20 each year (9.4%) meet the diagnostic criteria for having an alcohol use disorder (dependence or abuse).

• About 1 in 5 people in this age group (7.2 million people) have engaged in binge drinking – consuming 5 or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past month.

• Rates of current and binge alcohol use among 12 – 20 year olds were higher in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South or West.

• Over half (53.4%) of underage current alcohol users were at someone else’s home when they had their last drink, and 30.3% were in their own home; 9.4% were at a restaurant, bar or club.

• Among youths aged 12 – 14 the rate of current drinking was higher for females (7.7%) than males (6.3%), about equal for females and males among those aged 15 – 17 (27.6% and 27.3%, respectively), and lower for females than males among those aged 18 to 20 (47.9% vs. 54.4%)

• The vast majority of current underage drinkers (80.9%) reported being with two or more people the last time they drank. Those who were with two or more people consumed an average of 4.9 drinks on that occasion, compared with 3.1 drinks for those who were with one other person and 2.9 drinks for those who were alone.

• Rates of binge drinking are significantly higher among young people living with a parent who engaged in binge drinking within the past year.

“In far too many instances parents directly enable their children’s underage drinking — in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being,” said acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson. “Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem — but it is a critical part.”

The findings from this study are being incorporated into the Underage Drinking Prevention campaign, an ongoing public outreach effort by the Office of the Surgeon General, SAMHSA and the Ad Council encouraging parents to speak with their children early and often about the negative effects of underage drinking. Find out more about this campaign at www.stopalcoholabuse.gov.

Read More

From SAMHSA: New Nationwide Report Estimates that 40 Percent of Underage Drinkers Received Free Alcohol from Adults Over 21
From CNN.com: Survey: Underage drinkers get alcohol free from adults
From this blog: New Study Shows Parents Are Giving Kids Their First Alcoholic Drinks

Technorati Tags: underage drinking, teens, alcohol, parents, adults, SAMSHA, survey