Dutch researchers say that although parents often try to teach responsible drinking by introducing alcohol to their teen children, that this approach generally backfires, and actually promotes heavier drinking in and out of the house.

In Holland, experts often preach common sense advice – such as recommending that parents should teach teens to drink responsibly by drinking with them, in moderation, in the home.

Unfortunately, in this case, some new research shows that common sense makes very little sense and that teens who drink in moderation in the home with parents end up having greater problems with alcohol than teens who abstain in the home.

Dutch researchers gave questionnaires on drinking habits and behaviors to 428 families, and followed up 2 years later to see how things had changed in the interim.

They found that teens that drank alcohol in the home were also more likely to drink outside of the home and had greater alcohol related problems, such as drinking related troubles at school or work, getting into fights and truancy.

Lead researcher, Dr. Haske van der Vorst, said that although parents generally have good intentions when introducing alcohol to teens that any alcohol consumption at a young age seems to promote further consumption – and the possibility of the problems that can accompany teen drinking. She advises, "If parents want to reduce the risk that their child will become a heavy drinker or problem drinker in adolescence, they should try to postpone the age at which their child starts drinking."

Read the full study results in the latest edition of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

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Want to prevent your child from becoming a bully? Well, there are some things you can’t change (like prior experience getting bullied) but you can reduce the risk by reducing exposure to violent movies, TV shows and video games.

Researchers at Iowa State University have identified 6 risk factors that predict which children are most likely to be involved in aggression against another student within a year’s time.

The risk factors are:

1. Low levels of parental involvement
2. Gender (males are more likely to be involved in aggression)
3. Prior experience being bullied
4. Prior experience with physical fights
5. Bias toward hostility
6. Exposure to violent media

The Experiment

For the experiment, the researchers enlisted 430, 7 to 11 year old children from 5 Minnesota area schools.

• Each student was surveyed on their risk factors twice over the course of a school year
• Each student was assigned an aggression score based on self reports of aggressive acts, peer nominations, teacher evaluations of aggression and school reports of actual violence

The Results

• The more risk factors a child had the greater the likelihood of aggression. The risk of aggression started to rise dramatically with three or more risk factors
• Knowing a child’s risk factor score, the researchers were able to predict with 94% accuracy which children would be involved in a physical fight within a 12 month period

Commentary

The study authors hope their research might lead to a statistical analysis which could help schools identify which students were most l likely to get involved in aggression, bullying and violence.

In a message to parents, lead researcher Douglas Gentile highlighted the importance of minimizing exposure to media violence, stating, "Most of the risk factors for aggression are really hard to change. You can't easily change whether your child has previously been in a fight or bullied. That's what makes this [media violence] different is that it's actually fairly easy to control compared to most of the other risk factors.”

Read the full study results in the July edition of Psychology of Popular Media Culture.

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Only 5% of parents believe their teen son or daughter has used marijuana in the last year…in actual fact 28% of teens have.

Parents…open your eyes! That’s what University of Michigan Children’s Hospital researchers might say after perusing the results of their survey study which indicated just how dramatically parents underestimated the likelihood their own children used drugs or alcohol as they overestimated the likelihood that other people’s kids were getting drunk and high.

Based on a nationwide survey poll of parents of teens between the ages of 13 and 17, here are the numbers:

• 10% of parents believed their teenage son or daughter had used alcohol within the last year and only 5% of parents believed their teenage child had used marijuana over that same times period.
  
• When asked to estimate how many other teens were using drugs and alcohol, these same parents guessed that 40% of teens would have used marijuana within the last 12 months and 60% would have used alcohol.
• In actual fact, according to recent survey data from the National Institute of Health, 28% of teens have used marijuana within the last 12 months and 52% have consumed alcohol within that same time period.
  

Lead researcher Dr. Bernard Biermann commented on the results by urging parents to open their eyes to the likelihood of substance abuse experimentation, saying, "If parents acknowledge the possibility -- and in fact, the likelihood -- that their child may have experimented with or used alcohol or marijuana, they can begin to talk to them more about it, provide some guidance, and allow their kids to ask questions."

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70% of teens use social networking sites on a typical day. These teens are far more likely to drink, smoke cigarettes and use marijuana.

Does spending time on facebook make your teen son or daughter more likely to drink, smoke or do drugs?

Researchers at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) can’t say for sure that using social networking sites causes teens to get drunk or use drugs, but after polling a representative sample of American teens and parents, they can say that teens who spend time on facebook or similar sites on a typical day are far more likely to use drugs or alcohol than teens who do not.

The Numbers

70% of teens polled reported spending time on social networking sites on a typical day. Compared to the 30% of teens who did not visit such sites on a typical day, the social media using teens were:

• 500% more likely to smoke cigarettes, 300% more likely to drink alcohol and 200% more likely to smoke marijuana
  

What Do Parents Think?

Although the study found that teens that were social networking users were far more likely to be teens using drugs and alcohol, parents don’t see social networking sites as real risk factors.

• 87% of parents say that using social networking sites won’t lead to drinking and 89% say it won’t lead to drug use.

Commenting on the study findings, CASA Chairman Joseph A. Califano, Jr urged parents to do more to protect their children corrupting influences, arguing, “The anything goes, free-for-all world of Internet expression and suggestive television programming that teens are exposed to on a daily basis puts them at increased risk of substance abuse. The findings in this year’s survey should strike Facebook fear into the hearts of parents of young children and drive home the need for parents to give their children the will and skill to keep their heads above the water of the corrupting cultural currents their children must navigate.”

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A Pennsylvania photographer won’t take graduation portraits for 4 high school bullies who she found making very mean spirited comments about other students on a ‘slambook’ style facebook page.

Indiana County photographer Jennifer McKendrick turned down 4 prospective clients who had booked photo sessions after learning that the teen girls were high school bullies.

McKendrick stumbled across the bullying while browsing through facebook and finding a local ‘slambook’ page that had been set up only to denigrate certain students. She then realized that 4 of the meanest contributors to the page were actually students who had booked photo sessions with her for graduation pictures.

McKendrick emailed the 4 girls and their parents and explained her refusal to do the shoot and provided screenshots of the bullying as proof of the behavior. Two of the parents emailed her back with apologies.

Explaining her actions, the photographer wrote on her blog, “how could I spend two hours with someone during our session trying to make beautiful photos of them knowing they could do such UGLY things. Realistically, I know by canceling their shoots it's not going to make them 'nicer people' but I refuse to let people like that represent my business."

McKendrick says she has been prepared for criticism for her actions but that most of the comments to her blog have actually been very supportive of her decision. She says she’s surprised, in fact, by how much attention she’s received for her stand against nasty behavior, explaining, "All I said was, ‘You were mean -- I don't want to have my business associated with you.' It wasn't some anti-bullying rally."

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Researchers at Columbia University say that 75% of American high schools students have used drugs or alcohol and that 1 in 5 meets the medical criteria for addiction.

Researchers at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University have just released the data from their annual survey of drug use in American high schools – and the results, they say, are nothing to celebrate.

Some key findings from the report, “Adolescent Substance Use: America’s No. 1 Public Health Problem", include:

• 90% of adults with drug or alcohol addictions start abusing drugs and alcohol before the age of 18. Only 1 in 25 adults with drug or alcohol addictions had waited until the age of 21 to initiate substance use
• 75% of American high school students have use cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana and one in 5 is addicted to at least one of these substances (when you factor out the 25% who don’t use – 1 in 3 of those who have used alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine or marijuana are addicted to at least one of these substances)
• Students are most likely to abuse alcohol, followed by marijuana, then cigarettes, then prescription drugs

CASA Vice President Susan Foster says the message parents need to take away from this is, “Do everything you can to get young people through their teen years without using drugs or alcohol,” she says. “Every year they don’t use drugs or alcohol reduces their risk of negative consequences, such as addiction.”

She reminds parents also that the teenage brain is still very much in development, and that teenagers are vulnerable to drug and alcohol experimentation because areas in the brain responsible for decision making, judgment and impulse control remain poorly developed. Unfortunately, she explains, “because the teen brain isn't completely developed, it's more sensitive to the impact and damaging consequences of drugs. The drugs increase the chance that kids will take risks and have impaired judgment, and that in turn impairs development and increases the risk of addiction."

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A culture of binge drinking and increasing rates of childhood obesity in England are putting a half million children between the ages of 4 and 14 at risk for liver disease.

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A mom in Dover England is facing a 12 month jail sentence for tackling and then taping up her daughter to stop her from meeting with a drug dealer.

In trying to keep her daughter from jumping out a side window to meet with a drug dealer lying in wait outside, Julia Saker and the victim’s then boyfriend, 22 year old Christopher Francklin, pushed Tabitha Saker to the ground, bundled her up with packing tape and pushed a sock in her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Unfortunately for the concerned mom and boyfriend, Tabitha had already dialed 999 (emergency) and the whole thing was caught on tape for police who arrested the duo on charges of false imprisonment - charges which led to an eventual prison sentence of 12 months for mom Julia and 18 months for boyfriend Christopher.

Many in England have criticized the courts for their judgment against a mom who seemed to have the best interests of her daughter in mind during the commission of the crime.

Dover MP Charlie Elphicke says the sentence is far too severe, arguing, “Drugs are a real evil of our times. Many people tell me any parent would do all they could in such a case. It seems clear that Julia’s motive was to help her daughter. In view of this, many feel that the sentence is too harsh.” He has said that he will push for a review of her sentencing.

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Scottish researchers say that children who report feeling neglected or controlled by their parents at the age of 11 are twice as likely to experience mental illness by the age of 15.

The Study

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and the Medical Research Council took a look at data collected on 1700 11 year old Scottish children, and found that 3% of these children reported feeling neglected or controlled by their parents. The researchers then followed up with these 1700 kids at the age of 15.

The Results

The researchers found that:

• Feeling controlled or neglected by parents at 11 doubled a child’s risk to experience a mental illness by the age of 15
  
• Girls who felt controlled or neglected at 11 were 6 times more likely to experience depression by 15
  

Lead researcher, Dr. Helen Minnis commented on the study, saying, " It seems children with better perceived parental relationships have fewer psychiatric problems as teenagers… I hope the study will highlight the influence of neglect. We tend to lump neglect and abuse together, but I suspect that neglect is more important than we realize. It shows we should be listening to children more.”

Experts say the study’s results make intuitive sense. When asked to comment on the research, Scottish psychotherapist  Edie Irwin says he’s not surprised by the findings of the study, affirming, "It makes sense that children who say home is not a nice place to be, that their parents don't listen to them or neglect them are more likely to have problems in later life."

The full research results can be read in the current edition of The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

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Kids with mental health problems like social phobia or impulsivity are more likely to become addicted to video gaming. Those that become video game ‘addicts’ tend to experience a worsening in social functioning and emotional health while those already addicted to gaming that reduce their play time tend to improve in those same areas.

A study of 3000 school aged kids in Singapore has added some disturbing info to the already troubling cannon of knowledge on the dangers of excessive video game play, especially by kids.

For the study, researchers administered questionnaires  to children in grades 3, 4, 7 and 8 on gaming habits, social abilities, general mental health and success at school. Among the questions were 10 adapted from questions used to diagnose pathological gambling. Kids who answered yes to 5 or more of these 10 ‘pathological’ questions were labeled gaming addicts.

The Results:

• 9% of kids were found to be ‘addicted’ to play (averaging more than 31 hours of play per week and exhibiting symptoms similar to those of gambling addicts, such as having gaming play cause problems in other areas of life.)
• Kids who were addicted to gaming tended to stay addicted over the course of the 2 year study period - 84% who began the study with gaming problems ended the study with those same problems. Those with gaming ‘addiction’ were more likely to have social or behavioral problems at the beginning of the study than those without – and over the 2 year duration of study, those who continued to game very heavily got worse on measures of depression, anxiety and social functioning, while those who reduced their gaming time improved in those areas.
• Douglas A. Gentile of Iowa University contributed to the study. In commenting on the significance of the results, he noted that kids who were more impulsive and socially awkward at the beginning of the study were more likely to become addicted to gaming over the 2 year duration of study, and significantly, that "when children became addicted, their depression, anxiety, and social phobias got worse, and their grades dropped. When they stopped being addicted, their depression, anxiety, and social phobias got better."

The study was published by the American Society of Pediatrics in the journal, Pediatrics. The society advises parents to limit kids’ screen time, which includes video game play, computer use and TV watching - to 2 hours per day.

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According to recent research, girls who are victims of bullying at school or online, have an increased chance of becoming substance abusers due to depression.

The new findings are based on a survey study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. One Thousand four hundred and ninety five tenth graders from across the US participated in the study - their numbers and distribution forming a representative sample of American teens as a whole.

The Survey:

• Teens were asked to review their emotions over the span of a 30-day period. They were asked if they had experienced sadness, irritability, hopelessness, a lack of appetite, variations in their sleeping patterns, or problems concentrating.
• They were then asked how many times in the past 30 days they had used any type of mood altering substances including cigarettes or alcohol, and asked if they had become drunk or smoked marijuana and if so, how many times.

The Results:

The results of the study indicate that bullying is linked to an increase in substance abuse, likely mediated by increased feelings of depression that girls tend to experience after being bullied.

Jeremy Luk of The University of Washington, a co-author of the study, explains the significance of the research results by saying, "Bullying is a serious problem among adolescents. Previous research has shown that it is associated with loneliness, depression and suicide. But no previous national studies have identified depression as an explanation for the relationship between victimization from bullying and substance use." He urges parents to take bullying very seriously and to report any occurrences they become aware of to school or other appropriate authorities – taking all steps necessary to minimize the chances of re-occurring bullying.

Bullying can be physical, verbal, sexual or even social on an on-going basis. It can occur in-person, or as technology becomes more prevalent, via online communications. Those being bullied are usually unable to protect or defend themselves from this mistreatment and as such bullying is associated with feelings of hopelessness, depression and may even result in suicide.

The full research results can be found in the current edition of the journal, Prevention Science

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A roundup of research results on the consequences of teen drug abuse as presented at the Annual Society for Neuroscience Conference in San Diego.

Researchers at the 2010 Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego are talking a lot about new research results that highlight the damage early substance abuse can wreak on still developing adolescent brains.

Some of the presented research findings include:

• Cannabis stays active in the teen brain for days after use, impacting on memory and learning (Dr. Frances Jensen of Children's Hospital Boston.)
• Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that teens who start using marijuana early and who use it heavily are at risk of permanently decreased IQs, particularly showing reduced cognitive flexibility, or an inability to change a response based on changing circumstances.
• Researchers at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science found that adolescents are better at ‘learning’ addiction and can develop more entrenched addiction sin less time.
• Researchers at Loyola University say that teen binge drinking can affect stress hormones, which may cause increases susceptibility to depression and anxiety later in life.
  
• Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign used animal model studies to show that adolescent brains exposed to amphetamine show decreased responses to dopamine later in life.

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Preteens and teens that aren’t happy at home or school are far more likely to drink alcohol and those that drink alcohol are far more likely to have sex at an early age.

Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University interviewed more than 3600 eleven to 14 year olds to find out how things like overall happiness and happiness at school correlated to participation in risky activities, like having sex or drinking alcohol.

They found that:

• 32% of 11 year olds and 66% of the 14 year olds had even drunk alcohol. For those 11 year olds that had drunk alcohol, the average age of first use was 9.2 years.

• Those that didn’t like school were twice as likely to drink alcohol and two and a half times more likely to engage in sexual activity

• Those teens (and preteens) that drank alcohol at least once a week on average were ten times more likely than teens who abstained from drinking to have sex

• Children who reported being unhappy at home and/or unable to talk to parents were most likely to have ever used alcohol

The researchers say that the study results paint a clearer picture of a very troubling situation – the kids that are most at risk of drinking and early sexual activity are also the ones least likely to respond to parental or school interventions.

Ending on a somber note, the study authors note that compared to other developed countries, adolescents in the UK have some of the lowest general well being scores, and that, "The rising prevalence of adolescent alcohol misuse and stubbornly high teenage pregnancy rates are recognised to be national public health priorities."

The full research results can be read in the Novermber 10^th, 2010 edition of Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy.

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Most teens stay up too late and then make up for lost whole-week sleeping time by snoozing late into the day on weekends. Teens with coming mental illness display erratic sleeping habits, but no set pattern of behaviors.

Australian researchers at the Brain and Mind Research Institute in Sydney say that abnormal teen sleep patterns can be an early onset warning sign of mental illnesses like depression, psychosis and bipolar disorder, and in some cases sleeping problems can precede other active symptoms of mental illness by months or even years.

Dr. Naomi Rogers, who directs the sleep unit at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, says that while most teens will have altered sleeping and waking patterns due to normal brain maturation during the adolescent developmental stage, those with very unusual sleep patterns are possibly at risk.

The researchers say that as a normal pattern, teens stay up later into the night and get up for school in the morning, and then make up for lost sleep time by sleeping in on weekends. They say that for teens with coming mental illness, there often is no such recognizable pattern of sleeping – simply sustained erratic sleeping habits, A couple of nights of long sleep, a couple of nights of short sleep ... it's the instability that we think is important," Dr Rogers said.

Advising parents, Rogers suggest that everyone be on the lookout for disturbed sleeping patterns in teens, especially when combined with other warning signs, such as social withdrawal and reduced mood. Earlier diagnosis of a mental health problem can result in milder treatments and a better prognosis.

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Worried your kids are using drugs? Well if you’re willing to hire the K9 dogs from Baltimore’s DogsFindingDrugs, you’ll know for sure if even the smallest traces of marijuana, cocaine, prescription narcotics, opiates or amphetamines reside within your home.

A non profit organization, the Baltimore team under the direction of owner Anne Wills began three years ago as a pet finding service, which used trained dogs to help worried owners track down wandering family pets. Now, for $200 an hour, you can contact the same team of dogs and handlers to come to your house and do a search that was previously only within the capabilities of law enforcement K9 units.

The dogs will also find explosives or guns.

Michael Gimbel, who served as the Baltimore County drug czar, thinks that Wills’ idea is a good one and he’s helping to spread the word to schools and parents in the community who might need the service. He says, "Bottom line is, parents need to use every resource available to protect their kids from drugs and their home. This is just another new and creative way to attack the problem."

Not everyone agrees however, that bringing in the dogs is the best way to support the long term trust and support between parents and teen children that are essential to prevention efforts.

Elizabeth Robertson, NIDA’s chief of prevention research commented on the idea, saying, "Given everything we know about substance abuse prevention, what you want to do with your kids is build trust and communication. This seems like a tactic that would disrupt trust." She’s also not sure how effective it would be, adding, "If you are a kid who was hiding drugs in the house and somebody brought a drug in the house, what would you do? I'd hide it in the yard. Or hide it in someone else's house…It doesn't seem that practical."

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