Teens ‘Learning A Lot’ About Risks Of Drug Use From Parents

This is the first of a two-part feature focusing on outcomes of the 2008 Parent Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

HARTFORD — Parents are talking more to their teens about drug use, but mom and dad are much more likely to discuss illegal drugs than prescription medications, second only to marijuana in rates of abuse among youth, the latest Parent Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America has found. The study also found that youth prescription drug abuse has remained constant even as marijuana and methamphetamine use has substantially declined.

The 2008 study revealed the first major increase in the number of teens who reported “learning a lot” about the risks of drugs from their parents since the inception of the study 20 years ago; 37 percent of teens reported learning a lot about the risks of drugs, a 16 percent increase from the previous year. Research consistently shows that teens who learn a lot about the risks of drugs and alcohol at home are up to 50 percent less likely to use. Yet, many parents have difficulty broaching the topic with their kids.

This progress coincides with data showing sustained declines in several drugs of abuse — notably meth and marijuana — over the past several years. That drop did not carry over to prescription drugs for which teens make up the fastest-growing group of new abusers.

“The strong declines in illegal use combined with the news that teens are learning a lot about drugs and alcohol at home underscores the power and influence of parents,” said Jill Spineti, president and chief executive officer of The Governor’s Prevention Partnership, which serves as Connecticut’s alliance to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

“Yet too many parents are missing opportunities to talk about the intentional abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications, which is the most pressing — and least understood — threat to our kids,” Ms Spineti said. “This risky behavior is still not on parents’ radar, many of whom don’t realize that when abused or used without a prescription, these medications can be every bit as dangerous as illegal drugs.”

Connecticut is no exception to the spike in prescription drug-taking among adolescents and young adults over the past decade, experiencing rates comparable to the rest of the nation. Alarm over youth prescription drug use and a related spread of heroin use among those dependent on prescription opioids prompted The Governor’s Prevention Partnership to spearhead a state task force on teen prescription drug abuse.

According to the survey, about one in five teens (19 percent) or 4.7 million reports abusing a prescription medication at least once in their lives, and one in ten teens (10 percent) or 2.5 million teens reports having abused a prescription pain reliever in the past year. About 7 percent or 1.7 million teens have reported over-counter-the-counter medicine (OTC) use in the past year. The prevalence of and attitudes behind this behavior are cause for ongoing concern. PATS shows 41 percent of teens mistakenly believe that abuse of medicines is less dangerous than abuse of illegal street drugs and 61 percent of teens report prescription drugs are easier to get than illegal drugs, up significantly from 56 percent in 2005.

Despite the increase in parent-teen discussions, adolescents are not learning as much about prescription or OTC medications as they are illegal drugs. Only 24 percent of teens report that their parents talked with them about the dangers of prescription drug abuse or use of medications outside of a doctor’s supervision. Just 18 percent of teens say their parents discuss the risks of abusing OTC cough medicine.

One positive note is teen attitudes toward the abuse of OTC cough medicine have improved with the number of teens who agree that “taking cough medicine to get high is risky” significantly increased from 45 percent in 2007 to 48 percent last year.

“Parent-child communication about the risks of drugs and alcohol is critically important, and research has shown a lack of parental awareness of adolescent substance use,” said Dr Amelia Arria, a senior scientist at the Treatment Research Institute and a nationally recognized researcher on the identification of risk factors for adolescent and young adult drug involvement.

“This study may indicate that parents and teens are finding some common language and that these important messages are getting through,” Dr Arria added. “We hope to see this trend continue to increase, as there’s still much work to be done.”

The study also indicates a strong correlation between increased teen exposure to antidrug messages on television and a decreased likelihood of trying drugs over the past ten years. Four out of ten teens (41 percent) agreed that antidrug messages made them more aware of the risks of using drugs and less likely to try drugs (42 percent).

Parent visitors to www.drugfree.org and www.preventionworksct.org can learn to talk with their kids about drugs and alcohol and take charge of the conversation with their kids.

The 20th annual national study of 6,518 teens in grades 7–12 is nationally projectable with a +/- 1.3 percent margin of error. PATS Teens 2008 was conducted in private, public, and parochial schools for the partnership by the Roper Public Affairs Division of GfK Custom Research. For more information and the full PATS Teens Report visit www.drugfree.org.

The second part of this feature will focus on issues specifically related to marijuana, meth, and steroids.