The Web
address of this article is
http://sfhelp.org/parent/news/kids_drinking.htm
Clicking a link below will open an informational popup
or full new browser window, so
please turn off your browser's popup blocker or accept
popups from this non-profit site
- no cookies or ads!
Pause and consider - why are you reading this?
What do you
This research summary illustrates several premises about social unawareness
in this nonprofit Break the Cycle! Web site. See my comments after the
summary. The hilights and links are mine.
- Peter K. Gerlach, MSW
+ + +
A significant number of children
are already drinking by middle school, suggesting that
prevention needs to
start in the elementary grades, researchers conclude in a new report.
In their study of more than
4,000 sixth-graders at Chicago schools, 17 percent of the children had used
alcohol in the past year. Those students who'd started drinking were also
more likely than their peers to have a range of problems, such as getting
into fights, shoplifting or getting into trouble at school.
The findings, reported in the
journal Health Education and Behavior, suggest that
alcohol prevention needs
to start in grade school, researchers say.
And such prevention efforts
should include parents, according to lead researcher Dr. Keryn Pasch, of the
University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.
One way to do that, she told
Reuters Health, would be for school-based programs to include take-home
assignments or other activities that involve parents. The study included an
ethnically diverse sample of sixth-graders at 61 Chicago schools; 713, or
just over 17 percent, said they had drunk alcohol in the past year.
|
These children, Pasch and her
colleagues found, were more likely than their peers to have a range of risk
factors for early drinking -- such as delinquent or violent behavior, a lack
of adult supervision out of school, and having friends who drank alcohol.
|
"I think it is important for
parents to be aware that kids may start drinking at an early age, and that
it is important to start discussions about alcohol use early," Pasch said.
One way to broach to topic, she suggested, is to look for "teachable
moments," such as when drinking is portrayed on television.
It's also important, Pasch said,
for parents to not only tell their children not to drink, but to also teach
them how to refuse alcohol when it's offered to them.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights
reserved.
Comments
This brief research summary adds to others in illustrating three major
premises in this educational Web site:
-
young kids using alcohol is associated with
other socially harmful behaviors
-
many mental health and media professionals
feel young kids using (drugs) can be prevented by parental teaching;
and...
-
they imply that the drug and behavioral
"risk factors" are with the child, not their family system.
This summary does not suggest that parents'
behaviors (e.g. using chemicals themselves) are as or more
important than "teaching" healthy values. It also omits the idea that
parents are responsible for promoting healthy self-respect and self-care in
each child, vs. the prevailing norm of shame and self-neglect.
A related trend is the alarming recent increase of excessive weight and
obesity in American adults and kids. Fats
and simple carbohydrates ("junk foods") can be as
as other drugs like alcohol and other mood-altering chemicals.
These
are symptoms of the root
problem - our citizens and government passively condoning parents being so
they can't nurture (fill kids' developmental and
adjustment needs) effec-tively. If
you agree, see these three practical ways
to correct this.
Also see these:
Prior page /
Print page
/
Lesson 6 links
site intro /
course outline
/
site search
/
definitions
/
chat /
contact
/
