The University of Colorado at Boulder is taking part in a study to determine how helpful parent-teen talks are when it comes to alcohol use.
All parents of incoming freshmen this fall received a handbook encouraging them to talk to their sons and daughters about alcohol use before they arrive on campus, according to Steve Bentley, director of the substance abuse program at CU-Boulder's Wardenburg Health Center. The study also will examine the best ways to prompt parents to have that difficult talk.
Professor Rob Turrisi of Penn State University is conducting the study and wrote the guide titled "A Parent Handbook for Talking With College Students 暗网禁区 Alcohol." The handbook gives parents pointers for broaching the topic of alcohol with their teenagers and has facts about alcohol use and abuse.
As part of a pilot program in 2005, CU-Boulder sent the handbook to about 300 incoming freshmen and their parents. In follow-up interviews, they found students whose parents did talk to them about alcohol drank less and less frequently than those who didn't receive a talk.
"There is enough evidence out there showing that intervention works, so the next question is what can we do to influence parents to have the conversation," Bentley said.
CU-Boulder uses several mediums to help inform students about alcohol use and to prevent its overuse, and the university is constantly looking for other avenues to reach students, according to Robert Maust, chair of the Standing Committee on Substance Abuse at CU-Boulder.
"This is another way to reach these newest members of our campus community, and who better to talk to them about the potential dangers of alcohol than their parents," Maust said.
On average people who use alcohol have their first drink when they are 13 years old, according to Bentley. "If you start at that age, that means we have students walking in the door here who already have built up a tolerance that allows them to drink much more alcohol, even to dangerous levels," Bentley said.
The drinking habits of young people have changed over the past 15 to 20 years, according to Bentley. "Partying" now often means that alcohol is being consumed extremely quickly and in mass quantities, he said.
"I don't see this as a preventative measure to get students to stop drinking altogether, but it is a way to remind them to do it responsibly," Bentley said. "I think of it as the last word your mother puts in your ear before you go away on your own."
Other alcohol initiatives in place at CU-Boulder include "Check-Up to Go," a mandatory online assessment and feedback survey designed to reduce drinking among college students; the two-strikes policy that leads to student probation and possible suspension for alcohol offenses; the Focus on Alcohol Concerns program, a two-session, six-hour educational program offered as a court diversion program for students cited for underage drinking; the Center for Students in Recovery located on campus to support students in recovery from addiction; and the Striving to Achieve Real Success, or STARS program, which offers more intensive support to students whose substance abuse is interfering with their education at CU-Boulder.
The parent handbook is a research instrument at this point and isn't available to the general public, Bentley said. However, the university may consider it for use in future years.