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↬+Neuroscience

By Steve Allsop, Curtin University
 

Young Australians are exposed to a range of risks from alcohol, both from drinking themselves and other people’s use. According to the most recent National Drug Strategy Household Survey:

• A third of 14- to 19-year-olds drank at levels that put them at risk of injury at least once during the previous month;
• Around 28% of 14- to 19-year-olds reported being victims of alcohol-related verbal abuse (and 13% were victims of alcohol-related physical abuse) in the previous 12 months.

 
Parents may believe they no longer influence their teen’s behaviour and the choices they make about using alcohol. But the evidence tells us that what parents do, how they communicate their expectations to their children and whether they supply alcohol does influence their children’s choices.

Reducing the risk of harm

The first question parents usually ask when considering this issue is, “what is a safe level of alcohol consumption for children?”.

Some suggest it’s best to introduce children to small amounts of alcohol in the presence of parents so that by the time they turn 18, they have learnt some drinking skills. But there’s no evidence to support this contention, and indeed there is emerging evidence that early parental supply of alcohol is associated with increased risks.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines emphasise there is no evidence to guide decisions about low-risk drinking among young people. The NHMRC concludes that for those under the age of 15, not drinking is important. And for those aged 15 to 17, the safest option is to not drink and to delay starting drinking.

Evidence has emerged over the past couple of years about the impact of alcohol on developing brains – most of this is based on animal studies but there are a handful of human studies as well. These studies identify physical changes in the brain and evidence of impaired problem solving and other cognitive functioning. This, in turn, might influence the ability of the child to reach their full educational capacity.

From a scientific point of view, the jury is still out about the extent of alcohol’s impact on growing brains. But as a parent, this risk of long-term harm has made me more conservative about my children’s access to alcohol.

After years of discussing alcohol and its effects with my children, I explained the evidence to them and indicated that for this reason, my advice was to avoid drinking for as long as possible. But I also pointed out that if they chose to ignore this advice, I wanted to know, and I preferred they only drank in my presence and only small amounts.

I made it clear to other parents that this was my expectation of my children and under no circumstances were they to provide them with alcohol.

Your expectations matter

Australian children live in a world where alcohol is regularly promoted and consumed, so it’s useful for them to discuss alcohol from an early age and understand what their parents expect of them.

Parents can use media portrayal of alcohol use and related problems to start discussions that are general, rather than subjective and sensitive. The best time to start talking about risky alcohol use is before it happens, not at 2am when tempers are frayed.

Talk about how alcohol might affect them even if they don’t drink themselves. Rather than just telling them what concerns you, try to find out what they might be concerned about, such as how drinking may lead to behaviour they’ll later regret.

You could ask if they know of examples of this happening to others – either on television or in movies, or in their day-to-day lives. This can help you reach an agreement on your rules about drinking and explain the rationale for those rules.

As children get older, parents might expect that peer influence usurps their own. But parents have a critical role: know where your children are and who they are with, and be clear about your expectations (keeping in touch, time to come home, what will happen if they break the rules) and what to do if they get into difficulty.

Discuss how other people’s drinking might affect them and help them develop responses, such as how to cope with pressure to drink, how to defuse aggression and how to avoid getting in a car with someone who is intoxicated.

Sometimes their friends may have difficulty with alcohol – alcohol overdose is not uncommon – so it’s worth talking about how they can “look after their mates”, such as placing them in the recovery position and calling for help. Looking after your mates is a way of also learning how to look after yourself. And make sure your child also knows where to get further advice.

Your actions matter

If you decide to allow your child to drink some alcohol, be aware that the younger they commence risky drinking, the greater the downstream threats. Discuss how they can reduce risks by only drinking in the presence of responsible adults, never drinking more than one or two drinks or on an empty stomach, and never drinking and driving.

Think about your own behaviour: how we use alcohol can be a powerful influence on our children. And importantly, create a safe, loving and functional environment for your children. Teens who live in a secure family with good two-way communication have lower risk of alcohol-related harm.

Steve Allsop receives funding from ARC; NHMRC; Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing

ᔥThis article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.

About

Maggie Steber was an only child. Madje Steber was a single parent. They were all the family they had and it wasn’t easy.

Madje divorced when Maggie was only six months old. Strong and independent, Madje raised her daughter in the small Texas town of Electra, near the Oklahoma border. She had a keen awareness of what others might be thinking of a young single mother at a time when that was often viewed as a scarlet letter. Their tiny house had strict rules and a formality that rubbed Maggie the wrong way, especially during her teenage years. Their relationship was strained with arguments and threats to move out. At the age of twenty-one, Maggie finally did.

“I wanted to leave, I had to leave,” Maggie says. “I went to New York to find my fortune, and there I found it.”

That fortune was as an internationally acclaimed photojournalist. She covered everything from fashion to war and completed stories in 62 different countries. She worked routinely for National Geographic, was the Director of Photography for the Miami Herald and taught at various universities and workshops.

As the years passed and Madje grew older, her memory began to fade. Maggie tried to help, but her busy career kept her away from Texas. She was only was able to visit a few times year. To this day, Maggie wonders if she did enough for her aging mother. Eventually it became apparent, Madje had dementia.

The disease proved relentless and Madje could not live alone anymore. Maggie was faced with an issue that more and more Americans must deal with as the massive baby-boomer population grows older. Maggie moved her mother to Miami to care for her. “This is my last chance to do it right,” Maggie says.

Over the next few years, Maggie turned her professional eye on her own life, documenting Madje’s life in an assisted living facility. The images speak to the pain of loss, the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship and the fragility of life. They reveal beauty in a liberation from the roles Maggie and Madje had learned to play as mother and daughter. They speak to both the harsh and humorous realities of life with a diminished parent and contain lessons for all of us as we face these issues in our own lives.

“This body of work is the most important one I have ever done,” says Maggie, “and will ever do. It’s Madje’s story, but really and truly, it’s my story.”

ᔥ Mediastorm