If you do not want your teenagers to drink too much, be a warm parent but make your children accountable to you, according to a major study from Brigham Young University.
Professor Stephan Bahr and his colleagues studied 5,000 people ages 12 to 19 years old to find out which teenagers are most at risk for binge drinking. Binge drinking means drinking five or more drinks in a row in one sitting.
"While parents did not have much of an effect on whether their teens tried alcohol, they can have a significant impact on the more dangerous type of drinking," said Dr. Bahr.
Parents who had warm relationships with their children, but yet insisted on knowing where their children were and who they were with, were least likely to have their teens binge drink. The friends of their children were less likely to drink at all.
Overly strict and overly indulgent parents did not fare as well. The ones who were high on warmth but unfocused on accountability, put their teens at a threefold risk for binge drinking. Those who were high on accountability but not warm toward their children had teens with twice the chances of becoming binge drinkers.
Advice to parents was to combine knowing what your children are doing when they are away from home with having warm loving relationships with them.
This research appeared in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Labels: parental-involvement, binge drinking
Posted By: Jane St. Clair