After-School Snacking: Making Healthy Choices

It's a scene that plays out daily in homes everywhere. Kids come in from school and head straight to the kitchen looking for something to eat. How can you can make sure your child gets nourished but still has room for a healthy dinner? Read on.

Helping Kids Deal With Bullies

A bully can turn something like going to the bus stop or recess into a nightmare for kids. Bullying can leave deep emotional scars that last for life. And in extreme situations, it can culminate in violent threats, property damage, or someone getting seriously hurt.

If your child is being bullied, there are ways to help him or her cope with it on a day-to-day basis and lessen its lasting impact. And even if bullying isn't an issue right in your house right now, it's important to discuss it so your kids will be prepared if it does happen. Click here to continue reading the rest of this article.

Homework: A Guide for Parents

By Peg Dawson, EdD, NCSP
Seacoast Mental Health Center, Portsmouth, NH

Homework has been around as long as public schools have, and over the years considerable research has been conducted regarding the efficacy of homework practices. While the results are not uniform, most experts on the topic have drawn some common conclusions.

Background

Harris Cooper, a leading homework researcher, examined more than 100 studies on the effects of homework and concluded that there is little evidence that homework at the elementary school level has an impact on school achievement. Studies at the junior high school level have found some modest benefits of homework, but studies of homework at the high school level have found that it has clear benefits.

Despite mixed research on homework effects, many teachers believe that assigning homework offers other benefits besides contributing to school achievement. Homework teaches children how to take responsibility for tasks and how to work independently. That is, homework helps children develop habits of mind that will serve them well as they proceed through school and, indeed, through life. Specifically, homework helps children learn how to plan and organize tasks, manage time, make choices, and problem solve, all skills that contribute to effective functioning in the adult world of work and families.

Reasonable Homework Expectations

It is generally agreed that the younger the child, the less time the child should be expected to devote to homework. A general rule of thumb is that children do 10 minutes of homework for each grade level. Therefore, first graders should be expected to do about 10 minutes of homework, second graders 20 minutes, third graders 30 minutes, and so on. If your child is spending more than 10 minutes per grade level on work at night, then you may want to talk with your child's teacher about adjusting the workload.

Strategies to Make Homework Go More Smoothly

There are two key strategies parents can draw on to reduce homework hassles. The first is to establish clear routines around homework, including when and where homework gets done and setting up daily schedules for homework. The second is to build in rewards or incentives to use with children for whom "good grades" is not a sufficient reward for doing homework.

Homework Routines

Tasks are easiest to accomplish when tied to specific routines. By establishing daily routines for homework completion, you will not only make homework go more smoothly, but you will also be fostering a sense of order your child can apply to later life, including college and work.

Step 1. Find a location in the house where homework will be done. The right location will depend on your child and the culture of your family. Some children do best at a desk in their bedroom. It is a quiet location, away from the hubbub of family noise. Other children become too distracted by the things they keep in their bedroom and do better at a place removed from those distractions, like the dining room table. Some children need to work by themselves. Others need to have parents nearby to help keep them on task and to answer questions when problems arise. Ask your child where the best place is to work. Both you and your child need to discuss pros and cons of different settings to arrive at a mutually agreed upon location.

Step 2. Set up a homework center. Once you and your child have identified a location, fix it up as a home office/homework center. Make sure there is a clear workspace large enough to set out all the materials necessary for completing assignments. Outfit the homework center with the kinds of supplies your child is most likely to need, such as pencils, pens, colored markers, rulers, scissors, a dictionary and thesaurus, graph paper, construction paper, glue and cellophane tape, lined paper, a calculator, spell checker, and, depending on the age and needs of your child, a computer or laptop. If the homework center is a place that will be used for other things (such as the dining room table), then your child can keep the supplies in a portable crate or bin. If possible, the homework center should include a bulletin board that can hold a monthly calendar on which your child can keep track of longterm assignments. Allowing children some leeway in decorating the homework center can help them feel at home there, but you should be careful that it does not become too cluttered with distracting materials.

Step 3. Establish a homework time. Your child should get in the habit of doing homework at the same time every day. The time may vary depending on the individual child. Some children need a break right after school to get some exercise and have a snack. Others need to start homework while they are still in a school mode (i.e., right after school when there is still some momentum left from getting through the day). In general, it may be best to get homework done either before dinner or as early in the evening as the child can tolerate. The later it gets, the more tired the child becomes and the more slowly the homework gets done.

Step 4. Establish a daily homework schedule. In general, at least into middle school, the homework session should begin with your sitting down with your child and drawing up a homework schedule. You should review all the assignments and make sure your child understands them and has all the necessary materials. Ask your child to estimate how long it will take to complete each assignment. Then ask when each assignment will get started. If your child needs help with any assignment, then this should be determined at the beginning so that the start times can take into account parent availability. A Daily Homework Planner is included at the end of this handout and contains a place for identifying when breaks may be taken and what rewards may be earned.

Incentive Systems

Many children who are not motivated by the enjoyment of doing homework are motivated by the high grade they hope to earn as a result of doing a quality job. Thus, the grade is an incentive, motivating the child to do homework with care and in a timely manner. For children who are not motivated by grades, parents will need to look for other rewards to help them get through their nightly chores. Incentive systems fall into two categories: simple and elaborate.

Simple incentive systems. The simplest incentive system is reminding the child of a fun activity to do when homework is done. It may be a favorite television show, a chance to spend some time with a video or computer game, talking on the telephone or instant messaging, or playing a game with a parent. This system of withholding fun things until the drudgery is over is sometimes called Grandma's Law because grandmothers often use it quite effectively ("First take out the trash, then you can have chocolate chip cookies."). Having something to look forward to can be a powerful incentive to get the hard work done. When parents remind children of this as they sit down at their desks they may be able to spark the engine that drives the child to stick with the work until it is done.

Elaborate incentive systems. These involve more planning and more work on the part of parents but in some cases are necessary to address more significant homework problems. More complex incentives systems might include a structure for earning points that could be used to "purchase" privileges or rewards or a system that provides greater reward for accomplishing more difficult homework tasks. These systems work best when parents and children together develop them. Giving children input gives them a sense of control and ownership, making the system more likely to succeed. We have found that children are generally realistic in setting goals and deciding on rewards and penalties when they are involved in the decision-making process.

Building in breaks. These are good for the child who cannot quite make it to the end without a small reward en route. When creating the daily homework schedule, it may be useful with these children to identify when they will take their breaks. Some children prefer to take breaks at specific time intervals (every 15 minutes), while others do better when the breaks occur after they finish an activity. If you use this approach, you should discuss with your child how long the breaks will last and what will be done during the breaks (get a snack, call a friend, play one level on a video game). The Daily Homework Planner includes sections where breaks and end-of-homework rewards can be identified.

Building in choice. This can be an effective strategy for parents to use with children who resist homework. Choice can be incorporated into both the order in which the child agrees to complete assignments and the schedule they will follow to get the work done. Building in choice not only helps motivate children but can also reduce power struggles between parents and children.

Developing Incentive Systems

Step 1. Describe the problem behaviors. Parents and children decide which behaviors are causing problems at homework time. For some children putting homework off to the last minute is the problem; for others, it is forgetting materials or neglecting to write down assignments. Still others rush through their work and make careless mistakes, while others dawdle over assignments, taking hours to complete what should take only a few minutes. It is important to be as specific as possible when describing the problem behaviors. The problem behavior should be described as behaviors that can be seen or heard; for instance, complains about homework or rushes through homework, making many mistakes are better descriptors than has a bad attitude or is lazy.

Step 2. Set a goal. Usually the goal relates directly to the problem behavior. For instance, if not writing down assignments is the problem, the goal might be: "Joe will write down his assignments in his assignment book for every class."

Step 3. Decide on possible rewards and penalties. Homework incentive systems work best when children have a menu of rewards to choose from, since no single reward will be attractive for long. We recommend a point system in which points can be earned for the goal behaviors and traded in for the reward the child wants to earn. The bigger the reward, the more points the child will need to earn it. The menu should include both larger, more expensive rewards that may take a week or a month to earn and smaller, inexpensive rewards that can be earned daily. It may also be necessary to build penalties into the system. This is usually the loss of a privilege (such as the chance to watch a favorite TV show or the chance to talk on the telephone to a friend).

Once the system is up and running, and if you find your child is earning more penalties than rewards, then the program needs to be revised so that your child can be more successful. Usually when this kind of system fails, we think of it as a design failure rather than the failure of the child to respond to rewards. It may be a good idea if you are having difficulty designing a system that works to consult a specialist, such as a school psychologist or counselor, for assistance.

Step 4. Write a homework contract. The contract should say exactly what the child agrees to do and exactly what the parents' roles and responsibilities will be. When the contract is in place, it should reduce some of the tension parents and kids often experience around homework. For instance, if part of the contract is that the child will earn a point for not complaining about homework, then if the child does complain, this should not be cause for a battle between parent and child: the child simply does not earn that point. Parents should also be sure to praise their children for following the contract. It will be important for parents to agree to a contract they can live with; that is, avoiding penalties they are either unable or unwilling to impose (e.g., if both parents work and are not at home, they cannot monitor whether a child is beginning homework right after school, so an alternative contract may need to be written).

We have found that it is a rare incentive system that works the first time. Parents should expect to try it out and redesign it to work the kinks out. Eventually, once the child is used to doing the behaviors specified in the contract, the contract can be rewritten to work on another problem behavior. Your child over time may be willing to drop the use of an incentive system altogether. This is often a long-term goal, however, and you should be ready to write a new contract if your child slips back to bad habits once a system is dropped.

Involving Siblings

Parents often ask how they can develop one kind of system for one child in the family and not for all children, since it may seem to be "rewarding" children with problems while neglecting those without. Most siblings understand this process if it is explained to them carefully. If there are problems, however, parents have several choices: (a) Set up a similar system for other children with appropriate goals (every child has something they could be working to improve), (b) make a more informal arrangement by promising to do something special from time to time with the other children in the family so they do not feel left out, or (c) have the child earn rewards that benefit the whole family (e.g., eating out at a favorite restaurant).

Adaptations and Further Support

Suggestions provided in this handout will need to be adapted to the particular age of your child. Greater supervision and involvement on the part of parents is the norm with children during the elementary school years, while, by high school, most parents find they can pull back and let their children take more control over homework schedules. Middle school is often the turning point, and parents will need to make decisions about how involved to be in homework based on the developmental level of their children. If problems arise that seem intractable at any age, consult your child's teacher or a school psychologist.

Click here to download the homework planner and incentive sheet.

Back-to-School Transitions: Tips for Parents

By Ted Feinberg, EdD, NCSP, & Katherine C. Cowan
National Association of School Psychologists

Getting a new school year off to a good start can influence children’s attitude, confidence, and performance both socially and academically. The transition from August to September can be difficult for both children and parents. Even children who are eager to return to class must adjust to the greater levels of activity, structure, and, for some, pressures associated with school life.

The degree of adjustment depends on the child, but parents can help their children (and the rest of the family) manage the increased pace of life by planning ahead, being realistic, and maintaining a positive attitude. Here are a few suggestions to help ease the transition and promote a successful school experience.

Before School Starts

Good physical and mental health. Be sure your child is in good physical and mental health. Schedule doctor and dental checkups early. Discuss any concerns you have over your child’s emotional or psychological development with your pediatrician. Your doctor can help determine if your concerns are normal, age-appropriate issues or require further assessment. Your child will benefit if you can identify and begin addressing a potential issue before school starts. Schools appreciate the efforts of parents to remedy problems as soon as they are recognized.

Review all of the information. Review the material sent by the school as soon as it arrives. These packets include important information about your child’s teacher, room number, school supply requirements, sign ups for after-school sports and activities, school calendar dates, bus transportation, health and emergency forms, and volunteer opportunities.

Mark your calendar. Make a note of important dates, especially back-to-school nights. This is especially important if you have children in more than one school and need to juggle obligations. Arrange for a babysitter now, if necessary.

Make copies. Make copies of all your child’s health and emergency information for reference. Health forms are typically good for more than a year and can be used again for camps, extracurricular activities, and the following school year.

Buy school supplies early. Try to get the supplies as early as possible and fill the backpacks a week or two before school starts. Older children can help do this, but make sure they use a checklist that you can review. Some teachers require specific supplies, so save receipts for items that you may need to return later.

Re-establish the bedtime and mealtime routines. Plan to re-establish the bedtime and mealtime routines (especially breakfast) at least 1 week before school starts. Prepare your child for this change by talking with your child about the benefits of school routines in terms of not becoming over tired or overwhelmed by school work and activities. Include pre-bedtime reading and household chores if these were suspended during the summer.

Turn off the TV. Encourage your child to play quiet games, do puzzles, flash cards, color, or read as early morning activities instead of watching television. This will help ease your child into the learning process and school routine. If possible, maintain this practice throughout the school year. Television is distracting for many children, and your child will arrive at school better prepared to learn each morning if he or she has engaged in less passive activities.

Visit school with your child. If your child is young or in a new school, visit the school with your child. Meeting the teacher, locating their classroom, locker, lunchroom, etc., will help ease pre-school anxieties and also allow your child to ask questions about the new environment. Call ahead to make sure the teachers will be available to introduce themselves to your child.

Minimize clothes shopping woes. Buy only the essentials. Summer clothes are usually fine during the early fall, but be sure to have at least one pair of sturdy shoes. Check with your school to confirm dress code guidelines. Common concerns include extremely short skirts and shorts, low rise pants, bare midriffs, spaghetti strap or halter tops, exposed undergarments, and clothing that have antisocial messages.

Designate and clear a place to do homework. Older children should have the option of studying in their room or a quiet area of the house. Younger children usually need an area set aside in the family room or kitchen to facilitate adult monitoring, supervision, and encouragement.

Select a spot to keep backpacks and lunch boxes. Designate a spot for your children to place their school belongings as well as a place to put important notices and information sent home for you to see. Explain that emptying their backpack each evening is part of their responsibility, even for young children.

Freeze a few easy dinners. It will be much easier on you if you have dinner prepared so that meal preparation will not add to household tensions during the first week of school.

The First Week

Clear your own schedule. To the extent possible, postpone business trips, volunteer meetings, and extra projects. You want to be free to help your child acclimate to the school routine and overcome the confusion or anxiety that many children experience at the start of a new school year.

Make lunches the night before school. Older children should help or make their own. Give them the option to buy lunch in school if they prefer and finances permit.

Set alarm clocks. Have school-age children set their own alarm clocks to get up in the morning. Praise them for prompt response to morning schedules and bus pickups.

Leave plenty of extra time. Make sure your child has plenty of time to get up, eat breakfast, and get to school. For very young children taking the bus, pin to their shirt or backpack an index card with pertinent information, including their teacher’s name and bus number, as well as your daytime contact information.

After school. Review with your child what to do if he or she gets home after school and you are not there. Be very specific, particularly with young children. Put a note card in their backpack with the name(s) and number(s) of a neighbor who is home during the day as well as a number where you can be reached. If you have not already done so, have your child meet neighbor contacts to reaffirm the backup support personally.

Review your child’s schoolbooks. Talk about what your child will be learning during the year. Share your enthusiasm for the subjects and your confidence in your child’s ability to master the content. Reinforce the natural progression of the learning process that occurs over the school year. Learning skills take time and repetition. Encourage your child to be patient, attentive, and positive.

Send a brief note to your child’s teacher. Let the teachers know that you are interested in getting regular feedback on how and what your child is doing in school. Be sure to attend back-to-school night and introduce yourself to the teachers. Find out how they like to communicate with parents (e.g., through notes, e-mail, or phone calls). Convey a sincere desire to be a partner with your children’s teachers to enhance their learning experience.

Familiarize yourself with the other school professionals. Make an effort to find out who it is in the school or district who can be a resource for you and your child. Learn their roles and how best to access their help if you need them. This can include the principal and front office personnel; school psychologist, counselor, and social worker; the reading specialist, speech therapist, and school nurse; and the after-school activities coordinator.

Overcoming Anxiety

Let your children know you care. If your child is anxious about school, send personal notes in the lunch box or book bag. Reinforce the ability to cope. Children absorb their parent’s anxiety, so model optimism and confidence for your child. Let your child know that it is natural to be a little nervous anytime you start something new but that your child will be just fine once he or she becomes familiar with classmates, the teacher, and school routine.

Do not overreact. If the first few days are a little rough, try not to over react. Young children in particular may experience separation anxiety or shyness initially but teachers are trained to help them adjust. If you drop them off, try not to linger. Reassure them that you love them, will think of them during the day, and will be back.

Remain calm and positive. Acknowledge anxiety over a bad experience the previous year. Children who had a difficult time academically or socially or were teased or bullied may be more fearful or reluctant to return to school. If you have not yet done so, share your child’s concern with the school and confirm that the problem has been addressed. Reassure your child that the problem will not occur again in the new school year, and that you and the school are working together to prevent further issues.

Reinforce your child’s ability to cope. Give your child a few strategies to manage a difficult situation on his or her own. But encourage your child to tell you or the teacher if the problem persists. Maintain open lines of communication with the school.

Arrange play dates. Try to arrange get-togethers with some of your child’s classmates before school starts and during the first weeks of schools to help your child re-establish positive social relationships with peers.

Plan to volunteer in the classroom. If possible, plan to volunteer in the classroom at least periodically throughout the year. Doing so helps your child understand that school and family life are linked and that you care about the learning experience. Being in the classroom is also a good way to develop a relationship with your child’s teachers and classmates, and to get firsthand exposure to the classroom environment and routine. Most teachers welcome occasional parent help, even if you cannot volunteer regularly.

Extracurricular Activities

Go for quality, not quantity. Your child will benefit most from one or two activities that are fun, reinforce social development, and teach new skills. Too much scheduled time can be stressful, especially for young children, and may make it harder to concentrate on schoolwork. When evaluating extracurricular activities, consider your family schedule and personal energy level. Multiple activities per child may be too much to manage, particularly if the activities have overlapping times, disparate locations, require your attendance, or disrupt the dinner hour.

Select activities where you have someone with whom you can carpool. Even if you are available to drive most days, you will need backup sometimes. Choosing activities that occur on-site after school will also minimize driving.

Find out from the school or teacher which days will be heavy homework or test study days and schedule extracurricular activities accordingly.

If your child does not want to participate in regular, organized extracurricular activities, you may want to consider other options to help build interests and social skills. For example, check out the local library for monthly reading programs, find out if your local recreation or community center offers drop-in activities, or talk to other parents and schedule regular play dates with their children.

When Problems Arise

These recommendations can contribute to a positive and productive school experience for most children. Some children may exhibit more extreme opposition to or fear of school or may be coping with more specific learning or psychological difficulties.

If your child demonstrates problems that seem extreme in nature or go on for an extended period, you may want to contact the school to set up an appointment to meet with your child’s teachers and school psychologist. They may be able to offer direct or indirect support that will help identify and reduce the presenting problem. They may also suggest other resources within the school and the community to help you address the situation.

While children can display a variety of behaviors, it is generally wise not to over-interpret those behaviors. More often than not, time and a few intervention strategies will remedy the problem. Most children are wonderfully resilient and, with your support and encouragement, will thrive throughout their school experience.

Parent Involvement Happens Everyday

How can you as a parent be more involved in your child’s education? It’s not as hard as you think!

Many of the traditional avenues of parent involvement – attending parent-teacher conferences, volunteering in the classroom, and getting involved with the PTA – are of course wonderful activities that will make a lasting difference in your child’s educational experience while increasing the quality of the school. But there are simpler things that parents can do in the course of day-to-day life that can also have a great impact on their children’s academic success. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Let your child know that school is important. Be sure to ask questions about school and homework, and set up a quiet place for your child to work.

• Read everything that is sent home from school – report cards, homework assignments, school lunch plans, vacation and bus schedules. Show your child that you are well informed.

• Encourage your child to read at home. Set a good example by choosing to read instead of watching a TV program.

• Explore ways to interact with your child by sharing facts, perceptions and opinions related to things you are reading.

• Challenge your child to read the book before seeing the movie based on the book.

• When your child asks for help with homework, provide guidance, not answers. It’s not your job to know your child’s classroom material. You can help best by asking questions, giving encouragement, and having your child review class notes, previous homework and completed tests. You can always call or write a note to the teacher if your child is struggling.

• Learn to ask questions and share thoughts that promote critical thinking. Some good questions might be: “What is the purpose of that?” “Why did that happen?” “What do you think the solution might be”? “Is there another way to look at that problem or issue?”

• Be willing to learn from your child, and express your appreciation for the gift of his or her knowledge and enthusiasm.

For more information, go to: http://www.nhparentsmakethedifference.org/everyday.htm

STRENGTHENING FAMILIES
Strengthening Families Program
The Strengthening Families Program is a component of Power of Parents, It’s Your Influence a nationally and internationally recognized family skills training program found to significantly reduce problem behaviors, delinquency, and alcohol and drug abuse in children and to improve social competencies and school performance. The program was developed by Dr. Karol Kumpfer at the University of Utah and has been proven effective in 17 countries. Click here to learn more about the program or click on the picture to the right to sign up!

Want to Learn how to Prevent Teen Abuse of Prescription Drugs?

Then click here to get a great fact sheet with helpful tips on how to effectively communicate with your child, and what the warning signs of teen prescription drug abuse look like.

Be Your Child's Best Advocate!

The Parents Involved Network of Chester County will be hosting FREE parent workshops from July through August to help parents become their childs best advocate. More information can be found by clicking here!

Keeping Your Teen Out of Trouble This Summer

The transition from school to summertime provides new opportunities for teens — and it can be challenging for some adolescents to cope with the change. Studies show that teens who haven’t tried drugs or alcohol are more likely to start during times of transition in order to deal with stress. But don’t worry — while change is a part of life, risky behavior, like drug and alcohol use, doesn’t have to be.

You can’t control the changes that impact your teen, but you can pay attention to his or her feelings, concerns and needs. Conversations are one of the most powerful tools parents can use to connect with — and protect — their children. Here are seven ways parents can help deter their teen from engaging in risky behaviors during the free time they’ll have this summer:

1. Work Up a List of What They Can Do Without Asking Permission

It can be frustrating for teens when they’re not being able to reach a parent at work in order to ask permission to go to a friend’s house, the movies or the beach. It can be equally frustrating for the parent whose employer frowns on personal phone, text or email interruptions. To address this conflict, sit down with your teen to talk about the kinds of activities they may do without your explicit permission. The condition is they leave a note or send you a text that tells you where/what they are doing, with whom, the time of departure and their estimated time of return.

2. Install Computer Controls

With some 200 million websites worldwide, Facebook, YouTube, and any number of other internet enticements, telling your teen that you are adding controls and a history tracker to your computer can help. This allows you to check (and them to know you are checking) where they are and have been online.

3. Know What’s in the Cabinet

It’s important to track the alcohol you have in the house - whether that’s in the fridge, liquor cabinet, garage, hall cupboard or wine cellar. Not necessarily because you are concerned your teen will consume alcohol (or collect quantities from various liquor bottles to fill their 12 ounce water bottle) but to help him or her avoid peer pressure to do so. The same is true of the medicine cabinet, your purse or the bathroom drawer. Also, with one in five teenagers abusing pain medication, it’s important for parents to monitor and secure all prescription bottles and pill packets in the house. As well as dispose of all expired medications to decrease the opportunity for your teen or their friends to abuse your medications.

4. Establish That Periodically Throughout the Day You Must “TALK”

Not text, but talk. A parent can tell when there is a change in their child’s voice, which likely will not come through in a text, and that voice change can be a signal that something is amiss.

5. Take the Spare Car Keys to Work (or track the mileage)

Just like the computer controls, knowing that you are tracking the mileage (or taking the spare keys to work) removes the temptation to “borrow” the family car.

6. Know Who Your Teen’s Summer Friends Are

Friendships can change once school is out. Some friends may go off to camp or at a summer job, while new kids are suddenly available to hang out. Knowing who your teen’s current friends are will give you the opportunity to talk to those friends’ parents in order to coordinate oversight while you’re both at work.

7. Follow-up on Statements That Don’t Ring True

“It’s not mine. I’m just keeping it for a friend.” Never believe these kinds of statements outright. Talk to that friend’s parents. A friend that asks your teen to hold drugs or alcohol for them is not a friend to have because obviously that teen knows it’s wrong, or they would hold it at their own house. Trust your instincts — chances are if you suspect your child is using drugs then she probably is or something else is going on.

Some of these suggestions may feel like you’re sending the message that you don’t trust your teen. But, in actuality, by reducing the opportunities for your teens to lie or go along with the crowd during adolescence, we strengthen trust all around.

What do you plan on doing to keep your teen out of trouble this summer?

Do you know what % of addictions start in the teen years?

If your answer is 90%, unfortunately you're right. That 's a disturbing statistic when you take into consideration that today over 11 million young people have problems with drinking and drugs, and only 15% of them are getting the help they need.

If you think that someone you care about is addicted to drugs or alcohol, recognizing the problem is the first step in getting help.

Many people think they can kick the problem on their own, but that rarely works. Unfortunately, overcoming an addition is not easy. Quitting drugs or drinking is probably going to be one of the hardest things. Most people who try to kick a drug or alcohol problem need professional assistance or a treatment program to do so.

Visit SAMHSA's website to find a treatment location near you: http://dasis3.samhsa.gov/

Less Than One-Third of High School Students Perceive a Great Risk in Drinking Daily

This study highlights the perceptions of high school students as it relates to alcohol consumption. Some shocking statistics show us that over 60% do not see any risk associated with drinking one or two drinks nearly every day. Have you talked to your teen about alcohol? Tell us about it in the comments section.

High school students are less likely to report a great risk in drinking nearly every day than in the regular use of illicit drugs, according to data from the 2010 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study. Less than one-third (27%) of high school students report that they think there is a great risk in drinking one or two drinks nearly every day and only 55% see a great risk in drinking four or more drinks nearly every day. One-half of students perceive a great risk in using marijuana reguarly. The perceived risk of regular use of other illicit drugs is much higher, ranging from 72% to 84%. The survey also found that only 31% of students disapprove of teens their age getting drunk. Previous research on high school students has shown that teens' decreased perceptions of risk and disapproval of alcohol and drug use are related to increases in use.

New Study Finds: Teen Drinking Not "Just a Phase"

Problem drinking during the late teenage years is a real problem, not just a phase, and can signal problem drinking in young adulthood, according to a new study CNN Health reported recently.
The findings are published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Lead study author Richard R. Rose of Indiana University stated, "The key finding was that the more drinking-related problems experienced by an adolescent at age 18, the greater the likelihood that adolescent would be diagnosed with alcoholism seven years later, at age 25." He went on to explain, "The analysis of co-twins ruled out factors such as parental drinking and household atmosphere as the source of the association, because twins jointly experience these." Rose said that because twin teens in the study had the same parental, environmental and genetic factors, the results provide strong evidence that drinking behavior at age 18 is a strong predictor for drinking behavior at age 25.


The study involved 597 twins enrolled in long-term Finnish study of twins. At age 18 the twins took the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI), which is a self-administered questionnaire designed to measure alcohol drinking related problems. Rose said the RAPI is one of the most widely used assessments of problematic teen drinking. Study participants were later interviewed in-person at age 25 to assess alcohol dependence.


The study found that 52% of teens had RAPI scores reflecting problematic drinking at age 18, and those results held at age 25 when the young adults were tested for alcohol dependence. 46.2 % met the criteria for alcohol dependence and 1.5% for alcohol abuse. RAPI scores in late teen years "robustly predict alcohol diagnoses in early adulthood. Accordingly, our results also provide new evidence that one pathway to problem drinking in early adulthood is a direct one from problem drinking in adolescence," according to the study. Rose says the findings show that teen drinking problems can chart a course to problems with alcohol in young adulthood.

Research Supports Current Legal Drinking Age of 21

As some of you may know, over the past two years about 100 college presidents and administrators in the U.S. have been supporting the Amethyst Initiative, which advocates lowering the legal drinking age to 18 years. The argument is that if the legal drinking age is lowered, young adults, specifically those on college campuses, won't be so tempted to binge drink. Well, a recent study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs recently found that lowering the drinking age did NOT lower the amount of binge drinking on college campuses. Hooray for research! Keep reading for the full story from CADCA:

A group of researchers have successfully debunked the myth that lowering the drinking age would reduce underage drinking, at least amongst college students.

Prompted by speculation by the two-year-old Amethyst Initiative— a group of more than 100 college presidents and other high-ranking administrators who want to reduce the Minimum Legal Drinking Age from 21 to 18, claiming that reducing the legal drinking age could result in less alcohol use on college campuses—researchers at BioMedware Corporation in Ann Arbor, Mich. extended the model previously developed by Dr. Richard Scribner of the Louisiana State University School of Public Health to conclude that lowering the drinking age would not cause students to drink less.

The study, “Heavy Episodic Drinking on College Campuses: Does Changing the Legal Drinking Age Make a Difference?” published this month in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, used data available from 32 U.S. campuses nationwide. Researchers took a cross-section geographically, some were primarily commuter campuses, some students lived in dorms and some campuses and even the surrounding communities were “dry,” researcher Robert G. Rommel says.

Lead author, Jawail Rasul, Ph.D., says, “Our goal was to reduce binge or “heavy episodic drinking” among college students.”

Since 2006, the group of epidemiologists and mathematicians has been working on modeling student drinking in terms of drinking types (abstainers, social, “heavy episodic” and problem) and reasons students transition between these types—processes of individual risk, social interactions and social norms. The group had built up a model where campuses are characterized by alcohol availability, which they call “wetness.”

The team, including Dr. Scribner, who returned for the new analysis, organized the underage students from the legal-age students on campus and assigned them different “wetnesses” (higher for legal age). They also altered the social interactions between social and “heavy episodic drinkers” for underage drinkers to model the misperception effect emphasized by the Amethyst Initiative. They then measured the effects of policy change by focusing on total “heavy episodic drinkers.”

Researchers discovered that the wetness increase on the campuses for the expanded legal age drinkers always outweighed the effects of misperceptions.

“The imbalance became even worse for drier campuses with strong enforcement of underage restrictions, where the Amethyst initiative says the misperceptions are the strongest,” Dr. Rasul says.

Authors say other alcohol-related problems such as impaired driving, tend to increase as access increases, as well.

Rasul concluded, “Since there was no evidence that high misperceptions of peer drinking are the norm, it was highly unlikely that lowering the drinking age would reduce student “heavy episodic” or binge drinking.”

Parenting Style Can Influence Teen Drinking

CADCA reported this week that teens may be more likely to drink alcohol if their parents are extremely strict OR extremely laid-back. Keep reading for the full story:

Researchers at Brigham Young University have found that teenagers who grow up with parents who are either too strict or too permissive tend to binge drink more than their peers. The study was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

"While parents didn't have much of an effect on whether their teens tried alcohol, they can have a significant impact on the more dangerous type of drinking," study author Stephen Bahr, a professor of sociology at BYU, told National Public Radio.

As part of the survey of 5,000 teens, researchers asked 7th- to 12th-grade students a series of questions about their alcohol such as how frequently they binge drink, how often they communicated, in general, with their parents, and what kind of parenting style did they think their parents possessed.

The teens being raised by “indulgent” parents who tend to give their children praise and warmth, but who don’t monitor bad behavior were among the biggest alcohol abusers.

"They were about three times more likely to participate in heavy drinking," Bahr said.

This was also true for teens whose parents were strict.

"Kids in that environment tend not to internalize the values and understand why they shouldn't drink," Bahr said. They were more than twice as likely to binge drink.

The parenting style that led to the lowest levels of problem drinking struck a balance between both styles: accountability and support.