Parents, sharing your drug-use stories may send the wrong message
Time to talk to your kids about drugs? Experts say these conversations are crucial to steering youngsters in the right direction, but how you handle it may make a difference, according to a new study.
New findings show that adolescent kids respond better to anti-drug messages when parents opt not to share their own past drug history, even if you're sharing tales of regret.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign surveyed more than 561 students in the sixth through eighth grades (around ages 11 through 14) on conversations they had with their parents about drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
Past research has found that teens said they would be less likely to use drugs if their parents told them about their own past drug use. Yet the new study found that adolescent kids whose parents talked about the negative consequences of their own drug use were less likely to adopt anti-drug attitudes.
"Parents may want to reconsider whether they should talk to their kids about times when they used substances in the past and not volunteer such information," says Jennifer A. Kam.
"Of course, it is important to remember this study is one of the first to examine the associations between parents' references to their own past substance use and their adolescent children's subsequent perceptions and behaviors," she adds.
The findings were published in the journal "Human Communication Research." Access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hcre.12001/abstract
For parents looking for advice on talking to your kids about drugs, visit drugfree.org.
