According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, although “many parents think they have little power over their teens’ substance use” in fact “how parents act… and how engaged they are in their children’s lives will have enormous influence over their teens’ substance use.”

          Some parents do not emphasize substance abuse prevention because they do not realize that drug and alcohol use is a local problem or they may believe that their children are not involved. Others may refuse to acknowledge the demonstrated existence of drug and alcohol use in the misguided hope that doing so will prevent the problem from reaching their own home. Most parents lack accurate information about drug and alcohol use—its symptoms and effects as well as the latest trends in underage use—that would enable them to monitor their children’s behavior and communicate effectively about substance abuse.
 

Parental Attitudes and Beliefs in Manhasset
           Data from the PRIDE Surveys document the need for more parent education on underage alcohol and drug use. According to the surveys:

• Most Manhasset parents recognize that underage substance use is a problem in the community but most do not believe their own children are involved.
• The majority of parents of high school students agree with their children that it is “fairly” or “very” easy for teenagers in this town to obtain alcoholic beverages and marijuana.
• Parents correctly pinpoint weekends as when young people most frequently use these substances.
• Almost all Manhasset parents acknowledge the harmful effects of tobacco and illicit drugs such as cocaine. However, while virtually all parents rate cocaine as very harmful, only a third extends that rating to beer.
• Most parents claim to talk with their children often about drugs and alcohol but most students say their parents rarely talk with them about this issue.
   

How to Strengthen Parent Power
         If parents are to initiate anti-drug/alcohol interventions at home, they need accurate information. When parents or caregivers know the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and drugs, it opens opportunities for family discussions about their abuse.

          Parents also need a realistic picture of underage use of alcohol and drugs in Manhasset, so they understand the pressures children face.

          In addition, parents need strategies to increase the effectiveness of their efforts and to strengthen their natural leadership in the home. These strategies  include good communication of values and appropriate expectations, active listening to their children’s concerns, and good family problem solving.

           Parents’ efforts also require community support, especially the support of other parents in developing and adhering to shared community standards on how young people socialize. Parents need the opportunity to talk with each other about how alcohol and drug use affect their children and how they can work together to monitor and combat problems they identify.

Working Together        
          Slogans about helping kids make healthy choices are common, but in justice parents cannot place most of the burden of saying “no” on their kids. A community’s adults must actively support its children by working together to create an environment in which kids have less opportunity to make poor choices. To do otherwise is to abdicate the adult parental role.