As children approach their teenage years, a lot of parents worry they will surrender to “peer pressure” and drink alcohol. It is a legitimate concern about a serious problem and, to be sure, the numbers are frightening. A 2007 a survey conducted by the University of Michigan found that 39 per cent of 8th graders had consumed alcohol. Other surveys find more than half of all high school students have tried alcohol. Underage drinking is a top cause of death for American youth. Drivers in the 16 to 24 age group cause over 40 per cent of alcohol-related car accidents, though they only represent 20 per cent of all U.S. licensed drivers. Kids who start drinking before the age of 15 face a much higher risk of developing alcoholism.
Parents often gravitate to extremes on the subject. Some are overly lenient, reasoning that they themselves experimented with alcohol when they were young and that it’s “just part of growing up.” On the other end of the spectrum is hysteria – parents who fall apart emotionally or become overly severe with their kids regarding alcohol. Neither of these extremes tends to produce positive results. In fact, they may often contribute directly to the problem.
While teenagers drinking presents many societal problems, for the teens themselves it is usually a symptom of other disturbances. “Peer pressure” – often cited as the reason kids try alcohol – is a rather useless explanation. If more than half of all high school kids have tried drinking, a little less than half have not – meaning a child could just as easily gravitate toward peers who won’t pressure them to drink as those who will.
Parents with teenagers who drink should look at their own relationship with alcohol. If they themselves drink to excess, the reason the child might do so is plain to see. But what if the parents don’t drink, or only do so moderation? In these cases, the underlying issue may be the parents’ emotional attitude about alcohol.
When teenagers rebel, they do it in ways they know will have the maximum emotional impact on their parents. Thus, parents who are overly emotional about the teenage drinking statistics may unwittingly be setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can’t blame parents who worry about drinking because of the problems with teenage drinking and driving.
The sooner parents talk to their children about the dangers and potential long-term consequences of underage drinking, the better. But the importance of imparting this information calmly and rationally cannot be overstated.
