Parenting style can determine teen drinking habits

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Most parents agree that they don't want their teenagers drinking heavily. Although parents don't always agree on what deters a teen from filling up cup after cup at a high school keg party.

What gets teens to stay away from alcohol?

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What gets teens to stay away from alcohol?

Some think strict rules with consequences when broken stop a teen from binge drinking.

Others take a kinder, gentler approach and believe they only need to educate their children and then trust that they'll make the right choices. These parents are more likely to give praise than punishment.

A new study by researchers at Brigham Young University finds that neither approach is effective.

"The teens who were being raised by so-called indulgent parents who tend to give their children lots of praise and warmth -- but offer little in the way of consequences or monitoring of bad behavior -- were...three times more likely to participate in heavy drinking," National Public Radio reports. "The same was true for kids whose parents were so strict that no decision was left to the teenager's own judgment."

So what's the trick to raising a teenager who might try alcohol but not abuse it? Researchers found that parents who borrowed from the two extreme styles were most successful. Warm, loving parents who set boundaries and who fairly punish their children when rules are broken are raising alcohol smart kids.

"They recognize their kids when they do good things and praise them, but they offer direction and correction when they get off a little bit," Stephen Bahr, a professor of sociology at BYU and the study author, told NPR.

Researchers asked 5,000 7th to 12th grade students a series of questions, such as "Have you had five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks?" and "What kinds of rules do your parents have?"

The point of the study, which was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, was to explore why some teenagers are more likely to become heavy drinkers. It didn't look at why some teenagers are more bound to try alcohol. More than 65 percent of youth have at least tried alcohol by the 12th grade.

Posted By: Amy Graff (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | December 28 2010 at 09:23 AM

Listed Under: Alcohol