Another school year is upon us. For teens, that could mean football games, off-campus parties and hanging out with friends. More chances to be social. Are you talking to your teens about alcohol use? Erin Johnson, pediatric nurse practitioner at Texas Children’s Pediatrics Longhorn Pediatrics, guides us on how she talks to kids and their parents about alcohol use.
In June, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its most current research. Alcohol use is still the most prevalent substance abuse among teens. The 2018 Monitoring the Future study of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-grade students found that by the end of 12th grade, 59% of students had consumed more than a few sips of alcohol, and 42.9% reported having been drunk at least once in their life. It also noted that the use of alcohol is often dismissed as typical teenage behavior by adults.
“It’s kind of like when I talk about anything, like internet use,” she says. “Have open conversations. Don’t be afraid to ask your kids and have open dialogue.”
Invite kids to ask you questions on a regular basis, she advises. Be nonjudgmental and ready to listen, but she always tells them that if she thinks a kid is in danger, she has to tell someone.
In her visits, she’ll ask the parents to step out of the room and have a confidential conversation. This is definitely one of the things she talks about with the kids. She asks about school, alcohol and substance abuse, mental health and sex.
“I’m not here to be a moral compass,” she tells them, “but I’m here to make sure you understand what you are doing with your body and that you are safe.”
Her conversations with kids usually begin by age 13, but she also begins talking about it with the parents in the room when kids are 10 or 11.
She agrees with the American Academy of Pediatrics that teenagers should not be having any alcohol.
“It’s not just about you monitoring them,” she says. “It’s about brain development. … Their brains aren’t fully developed until their mid-20s. Throwing alcohol and substances at them can inhibit brain development.”
She recommends sticking with the legal age of 21 for drinking. “If it’s just not part of their accepted behavior until then, then the risks go down dramatically,” she says.
She worries that parents allowing kids to drink is “opening a door of acceptability that I think is dangerous. It can lead to other things: rapes, assaults, drunk driving. They need to see the big picture.”
It can also lead to being willing to try other things that might not be legal.
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When she’s having these conversations, Johnson says, she’ll bring up cases she sees in the news. “It’s not to say it in a horrifying, scary way, but to help them understand that if you are passed out at a party, you might not know what is happening to you until after the fact.”
Parents also need to watch how they interact with alcohol. “If you have a healthy attitude or behavior around alcohol, the kids are going to do what you do. How you use alcohol directly influences how kids use alcohol,” she says.
