When your teen abuses alcohol, it’s easy to judge yourself or negatively compare your family to others. But it’s worth remembering that the teen years don’t last forever. With your guidance and support, your child can learn to resist the allure of underage drinking and, if they later choose to do so, develop a healthy, responsible relationship with alcohol when they reach adulthood.
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- How you behave around alcohol will teach your child a lot more than any rules you lay out.
- Alcohol can affect how teenagers function, how they recognise risks, and their ability to make good decisions.
- Talking to your teen about drinking is not a single task to tick off your to-do list, but rather an ongoing discussion.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 21-year-old minimum drinking age laws have reduced alcohol traffic fatalities by 13 percent and have saved an estimated 28,765 lives since 1975.
- Remember that as a parent, your child is much more likely to mimic your actions than listen to your words.
Car accidents and drink driving are a leading cause of death for young adults. If you catch your teen drinking, try not to lead with anger, shame, or a long lecture. In 2008, almost 40,000 youth ages were admitted to hospitals due to alcohol problems. In most cases, the primary or secondary diagnosis was acute intoxication.
For example, communities can try to reduce the number of places that sell alcohol, increase the price of alcohol and be more proactive about refusing to sell alcoholic beverages to underage customers. Research shows that teens who have a close, supportive relationship with their parents or guardians are more likely to delay drinking. Allow your teen to talk and open up about their thoughts and opinions, and try to listen without being critical, disapproving, or judgmental.
- Being aware of these disparities can help adults learn how to address teen alcohol use more effectively, paying particular attention to the most at-risk groups.
- Celebrating the end of high school (schoolies week) is often linked to high levels of single-session drinking or deliberately drinking to get drunk.
- A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
- Underage drinking is a serious public health problem in the United States.
- Many young people start experimenting with alcohol during their teenage years, especially when they’re socialising.
NA and Other Peer Support Groups for Drug Addiction
- The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing.
- Adolescents tend to drink if the adults around them drink or binge drink alcohol.
- Take preventive steps, such as networking with other parents who share your same thinking and rules about underage drinking.
- The physical and hormonal changes can create emotional ups and downs as kids struggle to assert their independence and establish their own identities.
- There are ways to help your teen cope with the pressures to drink alcohol and make better choices.
- Alcohol is the most widely used substance among America’s youth, and drinking by young people poses enormous health and safety risks.
- Additionally, the part of the brain responsible for decision making, the prefrontal cortex, has not yet finished developing.
How you behave around alcohol will teach your child a lot more than any rules you lay out. Studies show that monitoring your kid and knowing what they’re doing and who they’re with decreases the chances that your teen will drink. You’ve found bottles of alcohol hidden in your child’s room and regularly smelled alcohol on their breath. You’ve noted the steep drop-off in their schoolwork, abrupt changes in their behavior, and the loss of interest in their former hobbies and interests. In addition to discouraging alcohol use, there are several practical ways that individuals, families, and communities can stop alcohol from being available to teens.
How to talk to your teen about underage drinking
You can also talk about how drinking makes people do embarrassing things, like peeing themselves or throwing up. So, if drinking is exclusively for adults only, that’s what they’ll do. They may also copy your own drinking Alcoholics Anonymous habits to establish their maturity.
BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more. Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours. Keep any alcohol in your home locked away and routinely check potential hiding places your teen may have for alcohol, such as under the bed, between clothes in a drawer, or in a backpack. Explain to your teen that this lack of privacy is a consequence of having been caught using alcohol. That’s an awful lot of youth who could be changing their brains — and their lives — forever.
You can help by fostering a relationship with your child where they feel that they can be open and honest with you, rather than being immediately disciplined. As kids enter their teens, friends exert more and more influence over the choices they make. Desperate to fit in and be accepted, kids are much more likely to drink when their friends drink.
- It’s important for parents to understand the reasons their child may experiment with alcohol.
- Kids face a huge amount of stress as they navigate the teenage years.
- Kids and teens are more likely to binge drink and are more vulnerable to developing a problem with alcohol than adults.
- The team interviewed families in New Zealand and France, where parents were social drinkers and their teens had some exposure to alcohol.
- Excessive alcohol use can harm people who drink and those around them.
- Explain your concerns and make it clear that your fears come from a place of love.
One major sign of underage drinking that you as a parent can look for is a sudden change in peer group. It may be that their new friends are encouraging this negative behavior. In a recent editorial in The BMJ, a trio of scientists pointed out that there are three periods in life when the brain goes through major changes and is particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol.
Letting Teens Drink at Home — Even ‘Sips’ — Can Lead to Adult Alcohol Use Disorders
In turn, this can lead to dangerous behavior, such as taking other substances or driving while drunk. Whether you caught your teen drinking or your child is just approaching an age when kids like to party, it’s natural to worry about underage drinking. Drinking is the drug of choice for teens today, and according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it’s a serious public health problem in the United States. As with adults, teens can develop unhealthy relationships with substances, including alcohol.
Instead, they are due to other fatal accidents, including homicides, suicides, poisoning, burns, falls, and drownings. Trying to talk to a teen about drinking when they’re watching their favorite show, texting with their friends, or in the midst of a heated argument with you about something else isn’t going to be productive. Choose a time when your teen hasn’t been drinking and you’re both calm and focused—and turn off your phone to avoid distractions. While parenting an adolescent is rarely easy, it’s important to remember that you can still have a major impact on the choices your child makes, especially during their preteen and early teen years.
