The recent release of the Partnership/MetLife Foundation Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) of teen drug use, and parent and teen attitudes toward substance use, shows both encouraging and alarming trends.  The data point to notable increases in teen use of alcohol, marijuana and Ecstasy, marking an end to a decade of long declines in drug and alcohol use among young people.  This coupled with the decline in “perceptions of harm,” among  both teens and parents is a strong indication that American society may be in for a perfect storm of increased adolescent drug and alcohol abuse not experienced in the United States since the 1990s.

This storm is fed by a growing climate of parental denial, which sees teens agreeing that “being high feels good” and parents of teens who have drug and alcohol problems either waiting to act or taking no action at all to address the problem.

The ever growing number of pro-drug cues in popular culture while, coupled with declines in federal funding of prevention programs, only adds to the tempest.  The 2009 PATS Report should be a clarion call to parents to arm themselves with the online tools that are now available to combat youth substance abuse, and act decisively.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s online resources for parents available at  Time to Talk and Time to Act provide valuable insight and guidance at those critical junctures when parents need them the most,  to confront the challenges of teen drug and alcohol use.  What to do, what to say and where to go for help are always the first questions parents ask when they discover a problem.

In 2000 when my wife and I discovered that our 15 year-old son David had a serious problem abusing alcohol and marijuana we took him to a treatment center to be assessed and were told he needed professional help.  The Center was temporarily full so we decided to try and handle it on our own.  But we were wrong.  Our delay in seeking help enabled his disease to progress rapidly in spite of the efforts of his counselors, family and friends.  David died in a drug related drowning eleven months after we first learned of his problem. Addiction in adolescents can occur rapidly, which is why it is crucial to identify the signs of youth substance abuse and act immediately.

Delay is not only perilous but it can have tragic results…we know that all too well now.

• 	Posted by: Kim Manlove | 0 Comment(s)
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I can say without reservation that one of the top questions I get from parents goes to the issue of letting their teens have beer and other alcohol at home.  Not that they necessarily want to, just that there seems to be so much pressure – real or perceived – that other parents are doing it.  Obviously, beyond the issue of breaking the law, my answer is “no,” that childhood drinking can present a number of potential health risks and also developmental risks to the teen brain including those detailed in our Parents Guide to the Teen Brain.

Now comes a new study, looking at Dutch teens (428 families with 13-15 year-olds were studied), that says despite their best intentions, the more parents permitted their teens to drink alcohol at home, (More…)

• 	Posted by: Steve Pasierb | 4 Comment(s)
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I recently met a mom who felt her four kids didn’t appreciate how good they have it – so she is taking them to a soup kitchen this week. She’s hoping that doing community service will give them a greater perspective on the world, help them appreciate what they have, and get a chance to find out how good it feels when they help someone else.

These are good messages for teens. Why not consider asking your child to help out in your community? Help him or her find a focus — something that is meaningful to him personally, rather than an obligation to fulfill. This could spark an interest in a certain cause or organization, which will allow him to feel his impact on the world.

Here’s one 15-year-old’s experience on getting involved in community service – and her tips for other teens who want to make a difference.

If your son or daughter is already doing community service – be it for his resume, a school requirement or the kindness in his heart – ask your teen to reflect upon it. What does he like or dislike about it? What has he learned? How does it make him feel?

When your teen spends time and energy working on a cause she feels passionate about, she gets to see and feel her impact on the world. She also gets some great practice at planning and thinking ahead, both of which for teens (and their developing brain), is always a good idea.

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 1 Comment(s)
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There’s a rapidly growing anxiety among teens.  It’s all about being constantly connected and how feeling out of the loop is — well, torturous.  And it’s no laughing matter.

Many teens I talk to feel compelled to check Facebook constantly and respond to email and text messages immediately — no matter where they are and what they’re doing.  So much so, that the thought of being out of touch with friends has become a full-blown fear.   A 15-year-old girl recently confessed that she sleeps with her cell phone so that she won’t miss a text.   A 16-year-old boy tells me that he can’t bear to turn off his computer for a few hours while he studies for a test because he might miss something “important” happening with his friends.  And a middle schooler confided that despite her parent’s restrictions, she races to her computer after they have gone to sleep.  It’s a connection frenzy alright, fueled by peer pressure and a fear of being alone.

Despite the documented benefits of social networking, there is a dangerous downside.  (More…)

• 	Posted by: Guest Blogger: Neil Bernstein | 3 Comment(s)
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Some parents believe that one way to prevent their children from binge drinking in college is to allow them to drink in high school. (I guess their thinking is that by letting their teens “practice” drinking in high school, they won’t overdo it when they find themselves on campus — especially if they’re at one of the top party schools, free of parental supervision.)

One way that parents do this is by hosting parties for teens and serving alcohol.

But, a new report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism challenges the idea that prior experience drinking in high school will prevent teens from going overboard in college.

The article, How NOT to Raise a College Binge Drinker highlights research from the Prevention Research and Methodology Center at Pennsylvania State University that says parents who allow their teens to drink alcohol in high school (More…)

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 5 Comment(s)
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Experts say it’s normal for teens to trick their parents from time to time. In honor of Halloween, we’ve created a guide for parents to do some trickery of their own — all in the name of reducing teen mischief and keeping kids safe, healthy and drug-free.

Check out these 10 tips for tricking and treating your teen on Halloween and beyond.

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 0 Comment(s)
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Parents have a big impact on the safety of teen drivers, according to an article in Healthday which highlights two recent studies published in the journal Pediatrics last month.

Parents who set rules and boundaries, and follow up on these rules, seem to raise teens who are better drivers. The first study observed the connection between parenting styles and teen driving behaviors/attitudes, and the second looked at teen behavior based on access to a vehicle.

More than 5,000 teens in grades 9-11 were surveyed and their responses show that teens with authoritative (high support along with rules and monitoring) or authoritarian (low support with rules and monitoring) parents are half as likely to speed. They also wear seatbelts twice as often as teens with uninvolved parents (low support and low rules.)

Compared to teens with uninvolved parents, teens with authoritative parents (More…)

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 3 Comment(s)
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The Partnership recently joined with two other organizations — the National Military Family Association and the National Association of School Nurses — to announce new resources to help military families keep their kids healthy and drug-free.

Science shows that transitions are particularly stressful periods for kids and they are more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol at those times. Kids in military families face more significant transitions than kids in most other families –- from moves and new schools about every three years to having a parent deployed, injured or even killed. We wanted to create resources specifically for military moms and dads so that they were aware of the risks that these kinds of transitions can pose and so that they’d have a simple set of tools to use to help them talk to their kids at these vulnerable intervals.

At our launch event on Capitol Hill September 30, a mom told the story of her son’s drug use and subsequent addiction which started when (More…)

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 0 Comment(s)
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Since I write a column for a Spanish gastronomy publication, I often find myself reading wine magazines to see what’s out there pleasing palates these days. I do wish I could be one of those people who delights in taking small delicate sniffs and dainty sips of a prized vintage before making learned comments in which I would toss around terms such as oaky and smoky. Alas, back in the day I tended to do much more swigging and swilling than I ever did swishing and sipping and therefore, it’s always a bit hard for me to relate to the whole world of wine-tasting. Tasting is all well and good but what’s the point really if you can’t go on to guzzle? That’s what I always say anyway. I guess that’s one of the reasons I no longer drink…

Back to my point. I was recently flipping through the June issue of Decanter magazine when I came across an article that really irritated me. It was called “How to Get Your Kids into Wine.”  Author Beverley Blanning kicks off by writing  about how horrible it is that the UK government has actually given the warning that “Parents and young people should be aware that drinking, even at age 15 or older, can be hazardous to health and not drinking is (More…)

• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 1 Comment(s)
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