A study from Partnership for a Drug Free America suggests that teen years are both turbulent for teens and insecure for parents.  The study, the 2007 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), shows that parents’ feel they lack the needed tools and useful information in helping them influence their teens’ decisions about drugs and alcohol, and these tools become critical as youth reach middle school age.  According to data from the study, over half of all parents with middle school teens feel they lack the tools and information to prevent those teens from using drugs or alcohol.  The study also points out that these parents believe their kids are reluctant to talk to them about drugs, and parents believe they actually have little influence over their teens decisions about drug and alcohol use.

This apprehension occurs despite other research, including other Partnership research, showing that kids who learn about drug risks at home are up to 50% less likely to use drugs and alcohol.  Parents are the most powerful influences in their kids’ lives, including their choice to try drugs and alcohol, but parents have to be willing to learn and to keep lines of communication with their kids open.

“A Parent Guide to the Teen Brain”
Release of this unsettling data from the study (PATS) coincided with the launching of a new and innovative digital media tool on the Partnership website. The tool helps explain how the human brain develops, and how some of this development relates to ‘normal teen behaviors’ that apprehensive parents have to deal with, including drug related issues.

To see the full article and to find links to related articles, actual PATS study, and the digital tool on the Partnership website, click here.