According to an Aug. 14, 2008, release on the CASA website, the organization's 13th annual "National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse" reveals that parents who are lax in their supervisory responsibilities or who model inappropriate behaviors put their children at greater risk for engaging in unhealthy activities:
Problem parents - those who fail to monitor their children's school night activities, safeguard their prescription drugs, address the problem of drugs in their children's schools, and set good examples - increase the risk that their 12- to 17-year old children will smoke, drink, and use illegal and prescription drugs.The release included the following findings that CASA personnel said were indicative of poor parenting:
"This year's survey reveals that too many mothers and fathers are problem parents who fail to take essential steps to prevent their kids from smoking, drinking or using drugs. By their actions - and inactions - by failing to become part of the solution, these parents become part of the problem of teen alcohol and drug abuse," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA's chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.
"Indeed, these problem parents enable - some even encourage - their 12- to 17-year olds to use and abuse tobacco, alcohol, and illegal and prescription drugs."
- Though 46 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds reported leaving the house on school nights to hang out with friends, only 14 percent of parents said their children did so.
- Thirty-four percent of teens with knowledge of prescription drug abuse said the abusers got the medication from home.
- Twenty-five percent of students who were surveyed said they know another teen whose parent smokes marijuana - and 10 percent said that the parent has smoked marijuana in the presence of teenagers.
Labels: parenting, alcohol, drug_use
Posted By: Aspen Education Group
