Parents Key in Drug War, Study Says

Children who learn about the risks of drugs at home from their parents are much less likely to fall prey to narcotics than those who do not, according to a nationwide survey released today.

“All this data really just screams at parents” to take an active role in their children’s activities, especially in light of the Littleton tragedy, said Steve Dnistrian, executive vice president of the nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which did the study.

“Kids who are learning nothing at home about drugs are using drugs at far higher rates,” he said. “We’re asking parents to consider that they don’t know their teenagers as well as they think they do.”

For instance, among teenagers who said they had learned nothing about the risks of drugs from their parents, 45% reported using marijuana in the last year. Use dropped to 33% for those teens who said they learned “a little” about the risks from their parents, and to 26% for those who said they learned “a lot.”

But getting the message across is not as easy as some parents think. Virtually all parents, 98%, reported talking to their kids at some point about drugs, but just 68% of the children remembered the conversation and only 27% reported learning a lot at home on the issue.

And those talks had better start early if parents want their children to listen, researchers concluded. Although 74% of fourth-graders said they want more guidance from their parents about drugs, that figure dropped to just 19% by the eighth grade.

The link between levels of use and the amount of parental discussion held true no matter what the ethnic group or the type of narcotic, researchers found. Children using cocaine, LSD or inhalants were also much less likely to have learned about the risks of drugs at home, the survey found.

The $300,000 survey tabulated questionnaires from nearly 10,000 preteens, teenagers and parents nationwide, probing attitudes toward drugs and their use. The partnership has been doing an annual survey since 1987, but this is the first time it has analyzed the connection between talking about drugs at home and preventing use down the road.

Even drug-policy groups that have favored a liberalization of drug laws applauded the survey’s message.

“We disagree with the partnership on a lot of things,” said Tyler Green of the nonprofit Drug Policy Foundation in Washington. “But anyone would have a hard time disagreeing that parents should talk to their kids about drugs and drug education. . . . It’s an important message.”

One of the few bright spots came in the rate of drug use. Although use increased throughout the 1990s, it appears to have leveled off last year, even dipping slightly in some areas. Fewer children reported that they had been offered drugs, and there was a drop in those who said they had tried marijuana, down to 42% in 1998 from 44% the year before.

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Parental Guidance

A nationwide survey indicates that parental warnings have a signi-ficant effect on whether teens use drugs. Among the findings:

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Parental teaching Teens’ marijuana use “Nothing” 45% “A little” 33% “A lot” 26%

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* Parents who say they’ve talked to kids about drugs: 98%

* Teens who say parents have talked to them about drugs: 68%

* Kids who want more parental guidance on drugs:

4th graders: 74%

8th graders: 19%

The survey was conducted in 1998 among 2,258 preteens, 6,852 teens and 809 parents. The margin of error for the preteens’ data was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points; the teens, plus or minus 1.8; the adults, plus or minus 3.9.

Source: Partnership for a Drug-Free America