Study: Parents clueless about teen drug use

WASHINGTON — Parents drastically underestimate their teenage children's exposure to and use of drugs and alcohol, according to survey results released Thursday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Eighty percent of parents surveyed said they did not think alcohol and marijuana were available at the parties their teens attended, the survey found. But 50 percent of teens said they attended parties where both substances were present.

Unlike past surveys that measured substance abuse itself, this is the center's first report that looks at the role parent supervision can play in teen drinking and drug use.

Addiction center President Joseph Califano Jr. said substance abuse increases with drug availability, and parents, many of whom take the attitude of "not my child," are not only unaware of the problem but are enabling it.

"Parents, wake up and smell the pot and beer," he said, adding that even parties with parents as chaperones often brim with drugs and alcohol.

Ninety-nine percent of parents surveyed said they would not serve alcohol at a party, but 28 percent of teens said they had attended events where parents were home and the children were drinking. By age 17, 46 percent of teens said they had been to parties where drinking and the use of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy and prescription medications, had occurred while parents were in the home.

Califano cited a variety of possible reasons for the discrepancy between what parents think is happening and what really is happening: kids sneaking in alcohol or raiding parents' medicine cabinets, parents not being honest in their survey answers, parents being present but in a part of the house that is removed from the party.

"You can just imagine the kids saying, 'Please, Mom, please, Dad, don't embarrass me,' " he said.

Nearly 1,300 young people 12 to 17 completed the survey, 591 boys and 706 girls. Of those, 255 were Hispanic and 250 were black. Also surveyed were 562 parents.

The survey findings showed almost no difference in drug exposure or abuse between males and females or among teens living in urban, suburban or rural areas.

It did reveal a racial disparity, particularly among the youngest teens, with 1 in 5 of the Hispanic and black 12- and 13-year-olds surveyed saying they had been offered drugs — three times as many as white teens the same age.

The survey also revealed that the transition stage at 13 and 14 is a particularly vulnerable time for teens as they enter high school and attain the freedom that comes with it. Fourteen-year-olds were three times as likely to be offered Ecstasy, and twice as likely to be offered cocaine, as teens a year younger.

Family structure also showed up as a strong indicator of substance-abuse risk. Teens who regularly ate dinner with their families and attended church were at less at risk, as were teens who slept more than eight hours a day.

Material from The Washington Post is included in this report