Parent perceptions and teenage drinking

I read about a project by one of the Intel Society for Science contest winners in the NYT and it reminded me of a conversation I had last year with a drugs and alcohol expert. Ms. Jurman's research pointed out that when teenagers learn that their parent(s) crossed certain boundaries, it emboldened them to cross the same boundaries. I remember having a conversation with Jeff Wolfsberg last year about the myth of European culture having a dampening effect on teen alcohol abuse. Jeff shot that idea down, saying that the permissivity of European and Latin American cultures towards alcohol actually seemed to create more young alcoholics than in America, although he admitted we have a wider-spread problem with binge-drinking during college.

Jeff does support teaching teens preparing to leave for college how to drink (and how not to) using tips like these:

1. Never drink just for the sake of drinking, as a game or contest, or with the aim of getting drunk or forgetting troubles.
2. Don't drink on an empty stomach. Eat both before and while drinking.
3. Pace yourself. Until you are familiar with your own reactions to alcohol, don't consume more than one drink per hour. One drink can be a 12-ounce can or bottle of beer, a 4-ounce glass of wine, or 1 ounce of liquor in a mixed drink.
4. Remember that carbonated drinks get alcohol into the bloodstream faster.
   

Know when to say "when." Monitor your own feelings. Be wary of any changes in mood or perceptions.

I think it's difficult for reality-bound parents to ignore the fact that their children will learn how to use alcohol from them first, and then from culture if their parents don't teach them by example. I fully intend to drink responsibly around my child(ren) and show them by example how to ask others to drive and plan ahead and know your own limits. I think this is a far more effective teaching tool than scaring or controlling them into total abstinence (even if you could) during high school, after which, in college, they may find themselves passed out in a ditch in the first week. I guess one option is to ship your kids off to some "camp" to try to scare/train them off experiencing things.

I know I could've benefitted more from positive role models involving alcohol use, and I blame this absence partly for how I got so wild in high school. (Partly.) I ended up being told by AA people that I was an alcoholic (complete BS). By the way, AA sucks as a form of "treatment" and doctors are now realizing that there is no such thing as a binary solution for all people who abuse alcohol.

So while Ms. Jurman's findings indicate more teens will try alcohol if their parents did, it doesn't talk much about whether or not these teens use alcohol more responsibly than their peers if taught by example.