Released December 22, 2011
STILLWATER, Okla. – Preliminary results from a study on Latino seventh-graders in Oklahoma support the idea that the more involved parents are in their children’s school, the better, particularly when it comes to alcohol.
“What we’re finding is that if parents become involved in their child’s schooling, it affects other areas of their lives beyond academic performance,” said Ron Cox, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension family science specialist. “The data suggests that if you can increase parents’ involvement in their children’s schooling, it will have a huge impact on the age when a teen first tries alcohol.”
Cox and his research team surveyed seventh graders in the Oklahoma City area in 2009 as part of the Pathways to Success Study, or PaSS, an ongoing study aimed at identifying factors, such as parental involvement, that influence school dropout rates.
Two measures used
Two measures in the study focused specifically on gauging the effect of varying levels of parental involvement as reported by students participating in the study. One measure looked at parents’ involvement in school-related matters like how frequently they checked report cards and how often parents participated in student/teacher conferences.
A second measure dealing with parental closeness explored concepts like how well parents knew what was important to their children and the degree to which the students felt comfortable telling their parents anything.
Generally, parents scored relatively well in both categories of measurement. When the research team narrowed the sample to only include Latino youth, Cox discovered that the chances of a student first drinking alcohol in his or her early teens dramatically decreased with more parental involvement.
Alcohol use
Baseline data showed that about 40 percent of Latino seventh-graders in the study had initiated alcohol use before they were 14 years old. If the student indicated that either the mother or the father was involved with their schooling that percentage dropped to 30 percent. If both parents were involved, the percentage of students who initiated alcohol use plunged to about 20 percent.
"This is an important finding since early initiation of drinking has been linked to greatly increased risk of developing alcohol-use disorders, dependency and other negative health outcomes," Cox said.
Research indicates about 45 percent of adults who began drinking by age 14 became dependent on alcohol at some point in their lives versus only 9 percent of those who began drinking at age 21 or older.
Cox said one of the motivations for looking at this topic is rooted in finding ways to reduce substance use among teens. However, he believes the results could have broader implications.
“It seems that if parents are involved with their children’s schooling it sends a general message to youth about their overall importance in their parent’s lives,” he said. “As far as formulating interventions, if we just get parents involved in school-related matters, we may be able to impact other troubling behaviors besides alcohol initiation.”
Even as the findings continue to take shape, Cox stressed that parental involvement is more than adults simply sharing the same space with their children.
“Parental involvement is about parents being actively engaged with their children and doing things together that build or maintain the relationship. That can happen in diverse settings, of course, and can incorporate all sorts of activities like sitting down to read together or going outside to play catch,” he said.
Strategies for encouraging such meaningful interactions between parents and children vary based on the age of the child and the health of the relationship. Cox encouraged parents to start early, when children are small. For instance, reading to a young child for just 5 minutes a day will go a long way.
The bigger challenge comes when children are older. It is especially difficult if the relationship is less than solid. In that case, Cox counseled parents to start slow, be consistent and avoid interpreting resistance as rejection. With older teens, in particular, parents have to build trust and that can take time.
“Look for opportunities to spend time together and do things your adolescent likes to do,” he said. “Be willing to compromise, too.”
The PaSS initiative is concluding the third year in a 5-year data collection period.
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Oklahoma State University, http://www.dasnr.okstate.edu/Members/donald.stotts-40okstate.edu/study-f...
Writer: Leilana McKindra, 405-744-6792, leilana.mckindra@okstate.edu
