Parenting Daily

I’ve previously talked about the “monkey see, monkey do” principal in parenting, as well as the importance of being a good role model. In a study released by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration today, it is revealed that in youth ages 12-20 that had drank alcohol in the previous 30 days, 40% obtained it for free, from adults over the age of 21.

6.4% of those got it, for free, from their parents.

30% drank in their own homes.

The rate of drinking was highest at the extremes of the wealth spectrum (i.e., the poorest and the richest).

11% of 12 year olds in the survey had had alcohol. 85.5% of 20 year olds had.

Frankly, I feel like putting exclamation points after every finding that I’m typing. These numbers are blowing even me away and I’m pretty darn cynical at this point.

Being a parent, I hate to harp on “it’s the parents’ fault.” But there’s just simply too little accountability in many cases of parenting. Certainly not all.

Just, please, if you see your teen is developing a problem behavior or issue, look at yourself, too. I’m not saying BLAME yourself. But if you can identify where, perhaps, the problem is stemming from, you then have a clue as to how to help your teen heal the problem.

The full SAMHSA press release can be found here. A CNN summary can be found here.

And, for the punishment-hungry, the entire SAMHSA study can be dissected here.

One of my favorite websites (if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed I’ve highlighted them several times in the last few days!), PsychCentral.com, wrote an article about an experiment in discouraging drunk driving.

It backfired. Big time.

I understand the concept. Make an impact by making “it” relevant to the students. You can probably still name some of the popular kids you went to high school with. The jocks or the academic stars, or whoever. There were certain kids who just stood out.

So this school in California uses this to its advantage. It thinks. One Monday morning, several of the most well-known students are absent from classes. A law enforcement officer visits classrooms and lets the other students know that these students were killed in a drunken driving accident over the weekend.

What do you think happens next?

Confusion, sadness, anger, shock… all the first emotions before the grieving process begins. Students are very, very distraught. There’s crying in the hallways, in the classrooms, students wanting to talk to the on-staff counselors. No one is getting anything done and it’s all anyone can talk about.

Can you guess the twist here?

The reportedly dead students are just fine. The school planned to reveal this during an assembly later in the day but moved the revelation up a bit because of the state of the student body.

Wow.

And the school defends itself in this CNN article. I really do understand that there are good intentions behind it. But a real lack of foresight, too!

If you don’t know it yet, peers are the most important thing in adolescents’ lives. Take away their peers and you take away part of what they think is their identity. Is it mature? No. But it’s part of adolescence.

What do you all think?

This could be an incredibly controversial post. I’m going to post it anyway and make clear that I’m not recommending you do or don’t do this. I see both sides of it, the same way I see both sides on the topic of condom distribution in public schools. One side would say, “They’re going to do it anyway, we may as well encourage them to be safe.” The other side says, “That sends the message that we’re condoning the activity.”

This week I read an article that summarizes the results of a study about reducing harm in college students who choose to drink. Though the study was performed on 247 college-age students, I think the results can still apply to teenagers.

Some teenagers are going to choose to drink, no matter what they say, pledge, what your family’s values are, or which extracurricular activities they are involved in. Similarly, some teenagers may never express a desire to remain sober but will do so, regardless of peer pressure or any opportunities they have to drink alcohol.

So as I present some of the findings of the “safer drinking” study, it will be up to you if you think it’s worth a conversation with your teen. It doesn’t have to mean that you’re condoning underage drinking (or any age drinking) but some parents may find it worth talking about in this age of hearing about people dying from binge drinking.

Some of the strategies to reduce harmful effects while drinking:

*eating before and during the drinking period

*drinking slowly

*plan your transportation before hand (akin to designating a driver)

*travel in pairs (the buddy system worked when they were in elementary school and it’s still prudent!)

*limit the cash you carry, take no credit/debit/ATM cards

*doing activities in-between drinks such as playing pool, dancing, etc.

Strategies to reduce harmful effects from drinking are not new. More strategies can be found at this site for HAMS (Harm Reduction Abstinence Moderation Support). HAMS has also published this guide on safe drinking for college students.

Comments welcome!

Do you have an active teen? If so, you may be able to breathe a little bit easier about whether or not they’re using drugs or smoking.

I recently ran across this article about the effects of exercise on substance abuse addictions. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a study was done that shows promise regarding the effects of exercise on developing addictions to substances such as drugs and alcohol.

The chief at NIDA reports that a recent study found that teens that exercise regularly are 50% less likely to smoke cigarettes and 40% less likely to smoke marijuana.

As a result of this encouraging study’s findings, NIDA has made available $4 million in grants to devote to this area of research.

We already know that exercise helps teens (and everyone else!) to focus and concentrate, works as a natural antidepressant, helps regulate mood, and helps people to get a good night of restful sleep.

Of course, even if your teen exercises, there’s no guarantee they’ll never touch cigarettes or drugs. There’s just less of a chance.

Stay with me, Parents! I told y’all we’d be broaching the subject of sex more, right? Not because it’s your favorite topic to discuss with your teen, but because I think it’s important to address the fact that teens do have sex. Trying to pretend it doesn’t happen isn’t going to help you or your teen. So, today I have good news about teen sex and drug use, per the lovely folks at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to a study released yesterday by the CDC, teens growing up today are having less sex and using less drugs than teens who grew up in the 1990s! Of course, those of you who had teen children in the 90s are probably not comforted by this news. Sorry!

A “nationally representative sample” of over 14,000 teens was used in this survey. In case that phrase is meaningless to you, it basically means that they tried to match the general demographic trends across the population of the
U.S. to those who they actually surveyed. Surveying every single teen across the nation is, obviously, impractical. Ergo, this is a “sample” of the “population” as a whole. Okay, moving on from our statistics lesson to the actual numbers…

Non-virgin teenagers in 2007 was 48%, down from 54% in 1991. 62% of those having sex are using condoms, a big increase from the 46% that reported using condoms in 1991. Unfortunately, there was no significant change in the percentage of Hispanic teens having sex in 2007, as opposed to 1991.

Marijuana and alcohol use are also down. While 42% of teens had had at least one drink of alcohol a month before the 1991 survey, only 35% had in 2007. And while 27% of students in 1999 used pot, only 20% had in 2007. Likewise, methamphetamine use by teens has fallen 6%, down from 10% in 2001.

Check out the full report  for more information on minority facts and figures, as well as issues regarding weapons and safety belt usage.

From the time I was 12 years old and received my first keychain from my grandmother that said “I’m a Beary Good Driver”, I was counting down the days until I could drive. I would guess not all almost-drivers start yearning for it as early as I did, but certainly by the time they’re hitting 14 or 15 and know other teens that drive, it starts to be part of their daydreams.

In most states, teens can start driver’s education classes at the age of 15 or whenever they’re eligible to get a driver’s permit. While researching this topic, I was surprised to find out there are actually online driving education courses! Click here to check out some sites that offer the online courses—but make sure you check with your state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles to find out if they’ll accept the course, if one is required in your state. Everything really is online these days!

The subject of teen driving is fairly broad, so I intend for future posts in the series to explore some safe car options for teens, the potential ways a teen can lose his or her license, and insurance issues.

For now, let me leave you with some staggering statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for
U.S. teens, accounting for 36% of all deaths in this age group (CDC 2006). However, research suggests that the most strict and comprehensive graduated drivers licensing programs are associated with reductions of 38% and 40% in fatal and injury crashes, respectively, of 16-year-old drivers (Baker et al. 2007).”

“The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers; the risk increases with the number of teen passengers (Chen 2000).”

“In a national survey conducted in 2005, nearly 30% of teens reported that within the previous month, they had ridden with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. One in ten reported having driven after drinking alcohol within the same one-month period (CDC 2006b).”

Click here for the full stats from the CDC website.    

In a staffing meeting with probation officers a few months ago, I learned of a new drug making news across the nation. Since I live in a region known for high methamphetamine usage, I was filled with dread at hearing about this new drug. Keep reading for 10 facts about jenkem. And be forewarned, some of this is going to make your stomach turn. But you need to know about it because the ingredients to make it are accessible to everyone, including your teen. 

1. It’s made from human feces and urine. That’s right. Let’s just get that part over with. No, I’m not kidding.
2. Jenkem seems to have originated in third-world countries, where raw sewage was scooped or scraped into plastic bags or bottles and kept closed for a period of about a week, then opened to release noxious fumes, including methane gas.
3. The fumes lead the user to feel a numbness and experience sight and/or sound hallucinations.
4. The dangers for jenkem usage are the same as the dangers associated with huffing—the inhaling of gases/fumes from products such as glue, aerosol cans, and paint thinner. These dangers include: lack of oxygen flow to the body, headache, nausea, vomiting; even death.
5. Inhaling jenkem leaves the user with the taste of sewage in their mouth, sometimes lasting for days. Therefore, you should be able to smell it on someone’s breath if you’re close enough.
6. Jenkem usage does not YET seem to have a foothold in America. However, in my opinion, it is dangerous to assume that it won’t ever gain popularity. That mistake has been made time and time again with different drugs across the nation. The general population tends to think that something is too disgusting, too dangerous, etc. for a drug to ever become popular. That is why it seems as though drugs “explode” onto the scene—because people ignore the possibility that humans really will take those risks to escape or numb themselves to reality.         
7. According to a WSBT TV report (http://www.wsbt.com/news/11077771.html), the long-term effects of jenkem usage can include: “brain damage, stroke-like symptoms, even destroying bone marrow to the point of developing leukemia.”
8. A widely circulated email, originating sometime in late 2007, speaking of jenkem usage being tried by high school students in Florida has been deemed a hoax. (http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/jenkem.asp) However, please remember that jenkem *is* real. The hoax part was that the teens were using it. They were not, at that time.
9. Jenkem also is referred to as: butthash, fruit from the crack pipe, cheese, Winnie (yes, I believe as in Winnie the Pooh), and devil’s chocolate.
10. The “high” from jenkem lasts about an hour for the user.