FAMILY INFLUENCE ON REDUCING UNDERAGE DRINKING

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FAMILY INFLUENCEONREDUCING UNDERAGEDRINKING
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Impact

• What do you think teens believe when parents
  overlook, disregard, or pardon their drinking
  behavior?
• In the absence of a clear family policy or
  consequences, at least some will reach the
  conclusion that its okay with their parents that
  they drink!

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Think About

• What messages do teens in your local area get
  from their family, friends, teachers, and the
  community about alcohol, tobacco or illicit drug
  use?
• How could you enlist the support of other parents
  to strengthen monitoring and communication for
  your children and their friends?

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Beliefs, Traditions, Myths

• Alcohol is an integral part of American life.
  It is a normal part to most social events.
• Most Americans enjoy drinking on a regular
  basis.
• Alcohol is a relatively harmless drug compared
  to illegal drugs.

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• Alcohol consumption is part of the right of
  passage to adulthood.
• Allowing use in a residential setting is safer
  than letting it happen in open areas.
• Teen drinking is inevitable, and it is safer if
  it occurs in a controlled residential setting.

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The Reality

• Large majority of Americans report little or no
  use.
• Adults 21 older, 47 report no use in past 30
  days.
• Adults 21 older, 28 report drinking once per
  week or less.

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Adolescent Beliefs

• Very young children even pre-schoolers can
  tell that alcohol has an effect on people that
  other beverages do not. In fact, children begin
  forming opinions about alcohol at an early age,
  and they tend to view it negatively.

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• Adolescents ages 12 to 14 believe that the
  positive benefits of drinking (feeling good,
  fitting in) are more likely to occur than the
  negative effects of drinking (feeling sick,
  causing serious health problems).
• Fifty-six percent of students in grades 5 through
  12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them
  to drink.

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Alcohol in our Society

• Once only sold through taverns and liquor
  outlets, alcohol is now sold in grocery stores,
  gas stations, airplanes, on the internet and even
  at drive-through purchase points.
• Increasing availability and accessibility not
  only makes alcohol easier to obtain, but also
  changes our thinking about drinking.

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Contributing Factors

• Weak or non-existent alcohol laws policies
• Easy access to alcohol
• Inconsistent enforcement of laws and policies

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• Alcohol advertising and promotion
• Lack of perceived risk and understanding of
  alcohol problems
• Poor adult role modeling
• Community norms that are tolerant of underage
  drinking

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Kids Experience a DifferentDrinking Environment
Today

• WHAT HAS CHANGED?
• What kids drink (potency of alcohol)
• How much kids drink
• Frequency of their drinking
• Overall availability of alcohol
• Definition of a drink
• Parental/adult supervision

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• New alcohol products cater to youthful tastes and
  may promote underage drinking.
• a. Sweet alcohol products blur the line
  between alcohol and soda.
• b. Malt liquors have high alcohol content and
  are sold in 40-ounce containers used by young
  people as single servings.
• c. Drinks that change the color of the
  drinkers tongue target youthful drinkers.

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• The National Academy of Sciences report
  identified that underage drinking cannot be
  successfully addressed by focusing on youth
  alone.
• Greater attention must be given to environments
  in which drinking takes place, and the
  circumstances in which adults drink.

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Parent Perception

• Recent surveys suggest that parent perceptions of
  youth drinking are skewed toward underestimating
  the amount and frequency of use.
• One survey said that 31 of the youth who said
  they had been drunk in the past year were said to
  by their parents to be nondrinkers.
• 27 of those who said they had 5 or more drinks
  in the past month were said by their parents to
  be nondrinkers.

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Role of Parents

• Lack of parental support, monitoring, and lack of
  feeling close to their parents have been
  significantly related to frequency of drinking,
  heavy drinking, and drunkenness among
  adolescents.
• Harsh, inconsistent discipline and hostility or
  rejection toward children have also been found to
  significantly predict adolescent drinking and
  alcohol-related problems.

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• Some research suggests that poor parenting
  practices are associated with early childhood
  deficits in social skills and self-regulation,
  particularly with regard to aggressive behavior,
  which result in early minor delinquency and
  rejection from mainstream peer groups. Children
  who feel rejected then affiliate with deviant
  peers in turn participation in deviant peer
  networks increases the risk for drinking and
  other forms of substance use.

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• A Columbia University study reports that
  adolescents whose fathers have more than two
  drinks a day have a 71 percent greater risk of
  substance abuse.
• Parents drinking behavior and favorable
  attitudes about drinking have been positively
  associated with adolescents initiating and
  continuing drinking.

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• Children of drinking parents were less likely to
  see drinking as harmful and more likely to start
  drinking earlier. Both these attitudes and
  behaviors, in turn, predicted greater alcohol
  misuse at ages 17 to 18.
• Children of drinking parents are more likely to
  associate with peers who have tried alcohol at
  ages 10 to 11, which increases the risk for
  alcohol use and misuse by the child.

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Developmental Influence

• As adolescents develop, drinking behavior becomes
  less influenced by parents and more influenced by
  peers.
• Perceptions of how much peers drink may exert a
  stronger influence on an individuals drinking
  behavior than the actual level of peer drinking.

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Behavioral Clues

• Research indicates that children who are very
  restless and impulsive at age 3 are twice as
  likely to be diagnosed with alcohol dependency at
  age 21..
• Aggressiveness in children as young as ages 5 to
  10 has been found to predict alcohol and other
  drug use in adolescents.

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Legal Considerations

• In Oregon, a parent is legally permitted to serve
  alcohol to their minor child.
• Law enforcement may not have legal grounds to
  enter a premises where minor drinking is
  occurring.
• Law enforcement may not have the legal grounds to
  confiscate the alcohol, or hold the responsible
  party accountable.

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Social Norms

• How do social beliefs about drinking affect our
  efforts to prevent problems associated with
  drinking?

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• The belief that most adults drink in moderate
  amounts without problems translates into public
  policies that make alcohol readily available at
  low prices and permit widespread marketing that
  communicates only positive messages about
  alcohols effects.

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• Although we may think that our alcohol policies
  are simply helping to meet the demand from
  moderate-drinking adults, they are actually
  accommodating heavy and hazardous drinking by a
  small minority of consumers, many of whom are
  underage.

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• Such policies undercut our efforts to reduce
  alcohol-related problems and underage drinking.
• These policies in turn create an environment that
  encourages alcohol use and downplays its
  potential for harm to public health and safety.

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• The average 6th grader believes that half of his
  or her peers drink alcohol well above the
  actual figure of 20 percent.
• Students who overestimate the proportion of
  drinkers are more likely to drink compared with
  those students who have correct or low estimates
  of drinking levels.

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• The pressure to drink is literally inside the
  young persons head, stemming from the pressure
  to conform to normative beliefs about alcohol
  use.
• 12 to 16 year old girls who are current drinkers
  are 4 times more likely than their non-drinking
  peers to suffer depression.
• Eighth grade girls who drink heavily, 37 report
  attempting suicide, only 11 of non-drinking
  girls.

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• Approximately one in four children, is exposed to
  family alcoholism or addiction, or alcohol abuse,
  some time before the age of 18.
• Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an
  intimate (a current of former spouse, boyfriend,
  or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a
  factor.
• Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were
  reported to have involved an offender who had
  been drinking.

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Age of First Use

• Adults who started drinking by age 14 were three
  times more likely to report driving after
  drinking too much.
• Crashes were four times more likely for those who
  began drinking by age 14.
• Delaying the onset of alcohol use may result in
  lower rates of driving after drinking and fewer
  alcohol-related crashes.

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Environmental Influences

• Alcohol is cheap and becoming cheaper.
• a. Cheap beers are now roughly the same price
  as popular sodas.
• b. Price promotions, such as happy hours and
  drinking games, often target young drinkers and
  promote binge drinking.

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• Community environments can exert powerful
  controls on drinking among young people.
• If a community makes it more difficult for young
  people to obtain alcohol, underage drinking is
  reduced.
• Alcohol advertising and promotions too often
  communicate to young people that drinking is
  expected, acceptable, and desirable.

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• Americans are bombarded with 4 billion of
  alcohol marketing annually.
• a. Advertisements commonly placed on venues
  where the majority audience is underage.
• b. Internet sites attractive to young people.
• c. On billboards and in retail outlets where
  young people are frequently present.
• d. Advertising often uses youth-oriented
  themes.

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• Alcohol is one of the most readily available
  consumer products.
• a. Many communities are saturated with alcohol
  outlets.
• b. Alcohol is often more available than basic
  staples and school supplies.
• c. Alcohol sales often key to success of
  convenience stores gas stations.
• d. These outlets often located in residential
  areas, near schools, and other areas frequented
  by young people.

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Other Key Findings

• Drinking increases as perceived commercial and
  social availability increases.
• Drinking increases as perceived enforcement of
  MIP laws decreases.
• Use of social sources increases as commercial
  availability decreases.
• Use of commercial sources increases as social
  availability decreases.

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Counting the Cost

• Over 100,000 U.S. deaths contributed to by
  alcohol consumption annually.
• Economic costs associated with alcohol problems
  total more than 100 Billion annually.
• Over 1/3 of Americans report that alcohol has
  caused problems in their immediate family.

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Annual Costs of Underage Drinking in Oregon
2001(Millions of Dollars)
Total Costs 697 million annually
387 per capita per year
Source Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws
Website http//www.udetc.org/UnderageDrinkingCost
s.asp
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Ease of Obtaining Alcoholby Oregon 11th Graders
Over 81 of Oregon 11th graders say it would be
very easy or sort of easy to get alcohol if they
wanted
Source Oregon Healthy Teens Survey
2005http//oregon.gov/DHS/ph/chs/youthsurvey/yrbs
data.shtml
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Sources of Alcohol Past 30 Days by Oregon 11th
Graders
Commercial
Social
Oregon teens use multiple sources to obtain
alcohol
Source Dent, Grube, Biglan, 2005
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Personal / Parental Action Steps

• Set a clear no-use policy for children in your
  family, regardless of age.
• Spell out the consequences if violated and
  remember to give recognition and praise for
  following family expectations.
• Keep the dialogue going and establish regular
  times to talk about concerns.

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• It is widely suggested that close parental
  supervision may reduce underage alcohol use.
• Phone interviews with parent-teen pairs found a
  relationship between parental monitoring
  practices and their teens drinking behaviors.

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• This study indicates that improving parental
  monitoring through parent education, support
  groups, and communication networks can reduce
  teen drinking.
• Know your childrens friends and their parents
  attitudes towards alcohol, tobacco and illicit
  drug use.

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• Curfews work enforce them
• Set rules voice them, follow them
• Dont be swayed by what other parents are doing
• Limit alcohol at your own parties kids are
  watching
• Love as a parent, not a friend
• If you think your child is drinking, they
  probably are address it NOW

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• Refuse to purchase alcohol for people under 21
• Refuse to provide alcohol to, or allow
  individuals under 21 to drink alcohol in your
  home or on your property
• Establish consistent parental expectations

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We dont have to apologize for expecting
appropriate behavior, policies and practices in
the way alcohol is sold, served, promoted and
used.
Penny Norton, CEO FACE