Parenting Styles that Prevent Drug and Alcohol Experimentation
Although as the parent of a teen you may wonder how much influence you have, research shows pretty clearly that what you do (or don’t do) has a huge impact on your teen’s health, happiness, and even choices. Learn which parenting styles reduce the odds of drug and alcohol abuse and which styles increase the risks – and learn how parental monitoring can keep your son or daughter safe from the worst of the dangers.
Parenting teen children is no easy task.
Parental advice and admonishments seem to fall on deaf ears of know-better teens and you can’t help wondering if anything you say or do has much impact on a child who is determined to go her own way!
So what can a parent do to prevent drug and alcohol use and abuse?
Thankfully, though it may seem hard to believe, the experts say that teens are listening a lot more than we may believe and that there are certain parenting strategies that can increase the harmony and satisfaction of the household as they reduce the likelihood that your teen will get into trouble with things like drugs or alcohol.
According to a whole lot of research, to keep your child safe:
- Be an authoritative parent
- Know what your kids are up to
First of all then, how can you be an authoritarian parent?
The Four Parenting Styles
The four major parenting styles are:
- Permissive (Indulgent)
- Authoritarian
- Neglectful
- Authoritative (democratic)
Permissive parents are high on love and affection but low on monitoring and limits and discipline. Permissive parents set few rules or expectations for standards of behavior and rarely discipline effectively.
Authoritarian parents are high on discipline and limits but low on affection and displays of love. Authoritarian parents give orders and do not expect or respond to questioning of those commands.
Neglectful parents are low on love and affection and on limits and discipline. Parental substance abuse can result in parental neglect.
Authoritative parents are sometimes called ‘democratic’ parents, for though the final decisions are the parents to call, all family members are seen as stakeholders who deserve to have input in the decision making process and whose wants and needs merit respect. Authoritative parents are high on both love and affection and on setting appropriate limits and positive discipline.
Effective communication is an important aspect of an authoritative parenting style. Rules and expectations are clearly explained to children and questioning of rules and expectations is met with explanations, rather than - “because I said so!” Authoritative parents also give their teen children room to grow into psychologically autonomous adults by accepting differing and evolving beliefs and opinions, even those that may, from time to time, conflict with the opinions and beliefs of the family as a whole.
Authoritative Parents Are Most Likely to Have Kids that Don’t Get into Trouble with Drugs or Alcohol
Perhaps unsurprisingly, teens in families with authoritative parents are less likely than teens from other types of households to get into trouble with drugs or alcohol. Some research results which prove this point include:
- A study of American middle and high school students which revealed that parents using authoritative parenting techniques were most likely to also engage in techniques proven to reduce the odds of teen drug and alcohol abuse, such as talking about drugs and communicating the family’s expectations about abstinence and high levels of parental monitoring.1
- A Bingham Young University Binge Drinking Study of 5000 - 12 to 19 year old Americans revealed that kids from authoritative households were half as likely as teens from authoritarian households to binge drink. Teens from households with indulgent parents who were low in discipline and accountability but high on warmth were more than three times as likely to drink as teens from authoritative households. 2
- Researchers studying children from grade 3 to 8 found that children from authoritative homes scored highest on measures of general competency and lowest on intention to smoke and on actual experimentation with tobacco. 3
The Importance of Parental Monitoring
In addition to authoritative parenting, another parenting strategy that’s proven to pay huge dividends for drug and alcohol prevention is a high level of parental monitoring:
- Do you know where your teen son or daughter is right now? How about after school, or on a Saturday night?
- Do you know who your adolescent child hangs out with? What are his or her friends’ names? Can you get in touch with them or their parents if you need to?
The teen years are a time of natural experimentation, risk taking and boundary pushing - and even the best kids are going to get tempted to do things, like try drugs or alcohol, that can get them into trouble.
While you can’t ever hope to watch them every second, you can help to protect them from the most dangerous of their natural impulses by staying involved and staying active in their lives!
Parents who closely monitor their kids are more likely to stop trouble before it starts and to solve small problems before they become big problems.
Some research findings which illustrate the importance of parental monitoring include:
- A European study of 15 and 16 year olds showed that a high level of parental monitoring was associated with a reduced probability of being a heavy substance user. In the study, parents who didn’t know where their children went on Saturday nights were the most likely to have teens who abused drugs and alcohol.1
- An American study, which followed almost 1000 kids from the ages of 8 to 11, found that kids in households with the lowest levels of parental monitoring were the most likely to initiate alcohol, tobacco or other drug use at a young age, and the less monitored a kid was, the earlier the initiation of use.2
- A BYU study of over 4000 teens from grades 7 to 12 found that teens who felt that their parents were monitoring their activities were far less likely to use drugs and alcohol than teens who perceived low levels of monitoring. Additionally, teens who perceived that their parents condoned the use of alcohol or drugs were far more likely to use these substances.3
Not Complicated – but Always a Challenge
The answer to keeping your teen son or daughter safe from the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as a host of other risky activities, isn’t complicated – but when parenting teens, no one pretends that even the most straightforward of advice is going to be easy!
Learn more about authoritative parenting and about how keeping your children involved in the decisions of the family can increase their overall competency levels and happiness as it also protects them from some of the worst of the dangers.
And get and stay involved in the loves of teens, who may love their privacy, but still need the guidance and protection of mom and dad.
References
- 1. Family Structure, Parent Child Relationships and Alcohol and Other Drug Use among Teenagers in France and the United Kingdom Impact of parent monitoring on initiation of drug use through late childhood. Bahr, Stephen J., John P. Hoffmann, and Xiaoyan Yang. “Parental and Peer Influences on the Risk o
- 2. Impact Of Parent Monitoring On Initiation Of Drug
- 3. Bahr Stephen J John P Hoffmann And Xiaoyan Yang
References
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