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An Easy Way to Keep Your Teen from Using Drugs or Alcohol
Studies show that people who don’t start using drugs or alcohol until after the age of 21 are very unlikely to ever develop a substance abuse problem. On the other hand, teens who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to develop a substance abuse problem than those who wait until legal drinking age.
Parents that can help delay their teen’s first use of drugs or alcohol protect their child enormously. And, according to research from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, keeping your children drug and alcohol free is as easy as eating dinner together as a family five or more times a week.
The Importance of Family Dinners
Family dinners give parents a natural opportunity to stay informed and engaged in the lives of their children. Research shows that this simple act goes a long way to keeping kids healthy and safe. Research also shows that not bringing your family together for regular dinners can have serious negative consequences:
• Among 12- and 13-year-old teens, those who participate in fewer than three family dinners per week are 300 percent more likely to use alcohol, 400 percent more likely to smoke cigarettes and 600 percent more likely to smoke marijuana than kids who sat down to five or more family dinners each week.
• Among all teens, those who sit down to three or fewer family dinners per week are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes and marijuana as teens who sit down to five or more family dinners weekly.
• Kids who have three or fewer family dinners per week are twice as likely as kids who eat more than five family dinners each week to say that they expect to try drugs in the future.
• Teens who have no more than three family meals per week are five times more likely to report a poor relationship with their mother and almost four times more likely to report a negative relationship with their father.
• Teens who have three or fewer meals family meals per week are 150 percent more likely to have a C average (or lower) in school.
Make Family Dinners a Priority
It’s the engagement at the table that matters, regardless of what is served on the plate. Teens who report three or fewer family meals per week and a lot of cell phone or Blackberry use at the dinner table are far more likely to use marijuana, alcohol or tobacco than teens who receive more focused attention from their parents.
Parenting teens is rarely easy, so take advantage of a simple technique to greatly increase the odds that your teen will not experiment with drugs and alcohol: Eat dinner together, five or more times each week, as a family. Turn off the cell phones and the Blackberries, and talk to one another.
Bon appétit!
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