Teens do Listen to Parents About Drinking (Study Finds!)

If you have a child preparing to start college this fall, you’re probably thinking about the cost of tuition and board, the quality of the cafeteria food, the high price of textbooks—and the temptations of alcohol. You may worry that nothing you say will make a difference once your student is on his or her own.

 

Fortunately, a study from Pennsylvania State University’s Prevention Research Center suggests you may have more influence than you think. The researchers surveyed 1,900 future college freshmen on their drinking habits. Then they sent parents a handbook of general information on college student drinking, and asked those parents to talk to their children during the summer before starting college, sometime during their students’ first fall semester, or both.

 

The results? Freshmen whose parents broached the subject over the summer were more likely to show a pattern of not drinking or light drinking, or to transition away from heavy drinking habits if they were already big consumers of alcohol.

 

Experts note that the tone of such conversations is important—you want to share your thoughts without lecturing your kids. But the findings indicate that talking about drinking instead of hoping for the best can have good results.