Kids Are Not Getting the Word about Substance Abuse
A series of national surveys released this month show there’s both bad news and good news about efforts to tell young people about the risks of underage drinking and illegal drugs.
The report, issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), shows that a fewer number of 12- to 17-year-olds were exposed to substance use prevention messages in 2007 (77.9 percent) than in 2002 (83.2 percent).
The report also shows that a smaller percentage of adolescents are participating in out-of-school substance use prevention programs (from 12.7 percent in 2002 to 11.3 percent in 2007).
On a positive note, the report shows a significant rise during this same period in the number of youngsters who talked with at least one their parents about substance abuse (from 58.1 percent in 2002 to 59.6 percent in 2007). The report shows that these conversations are associated with lower rates of current substance use by an adolescent.
Adolescents who had conversations with their parents about the dangers of substance abuse were significantly less likely to be current users of the following substances than those who did not have such conversations with their parents:
• Alcohol (16.2 percent versus 18.3 percent)?
• Cigarettes (10.6 percent versus 12.5 percent)?
• Illicit Drugs (9.5 percent versus 11.7 percent)
Eric Broderick, SAMHSA’s acting administrator, said, “The findings of this report indicate that we all must do more to get the message out to our young people that substance abuse is harmful to their health and happiness.”
Children who received prevention messages in school were less likely to abuse substances. The level of exposure to these messages, however, was about the same between 2002 (71.4 percent) and 2007 (70.2 percent).
The report found mixed results when children heard substance abuse messages via media sources. Cigarette and illicit drug use was lower among those children who received prevention messages through media sources than those who had not. In the case of alcohol use, however, those students who were exposed to prevention messages were more likely to drink than those who did not hear the messages.
• Cigarettes (10.8 percent vs. 13.4 percent)?
• Illicit Drugs (10.1 percent vs. 11.9 percent)?
• Alcohol (17.2 percent vs. 16.4 percent)
