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June 20 , 2006 Order before July 1 to save. Fiscal Year 2007 House Appropriations Update from CADCA Pride Survey customers receive a free Drug Free Communities Report. Pride
Surveys 800.279.6361 |
Parents, Kids, Alcohol and Drugs: A Disconnect?
Pride Surveys recently reported that nearly three-fourths of parents viewed themselves as the most effective strategy to prevent adolescent alcohol and drug use. Unfortunately, a deeper analysis reveals that most parents dramatically underestimate the extent of alcohol and drug use among adolescents. (In depth charts on alcohol and drugs.) Fewer than 5% of parents say that their sixth grade child has tried or is using alcohol. Yet 21% of sixth-graders self-report alcohol use. The disparity is more remarkable when the subject shifts to illegal drugs. Less than 1% of parents with children in the sixth-grade believe that their child has tried or is using an illegal substance. In fact, 8% of sixth-grade students report they have used an illicit drug in the past year. The gap between what parents think, and what children say they do, narrows slightly as the child ages, but the two indicators are never reconciled. More than two-thirds of 12th graders (68%) report alcohol use, but far less than half of the parents (41%) say their child drinks. And once again, when it comes to illicit drugs, the two groups (12th grade students and parents) are far apart. While 36% of 12th graders acknowledge using an illicit drug in the past year, just 15% of parents say that their child has used or is using drugs. Pride Surveys believes that public dissemination of survey results, at the most localized level possible, is important to overcoming parental denial and forging a grassroots response to adolescent issues like alcohol, drug and violence problems. Parents agree with this approach: 63% of parents say that schools keeping parents informed about student drug use is an effective solution to community problems. Previous findings from the Pride Survey for Parents.
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