Five Facts to Get Your Conversations Started for National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week
Over the last year, families, kids, and educators have faced multiple hurdles: Online learning, social distancing, mask wearing, and more. We have also spent more time at home, which has allowed for more conversations than ever before. These conversations make a big difference in helping form healthy habits and coping mechanisms and they help build lines of communications for even more conversations to come!
This week is National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week, a perfect time to continue these conversations about the negative effects of alcohol and other substances on their developing brains. The great news is that kids are making good decision! Keeping these important discussions flowing will help these numbers continue to move in the right direction.
Five facts about kids and risky behaviors:
- 72% of teens identify their parents as the #1 influence on their decision whether to drink alcohol or not.
- 74% of 8th graders report they have NEVER consumed alcohol, down 63% proportionally since 1991 (Monitoring the Future, 2020).
- 56% of teens report never having consumed alcohol (Monitoring the Future, 2020).
- 62% of 8th graders disapprove of their peers trying marijuana and 77% disapprove of them smoking marijuana regularly.
- 83% of 8th graders disapprove of binge drinking.
Parents and educators, keep up the good work! Knowing the facts is a great way to start the conversations, which are making a HUGE impact on helping kids say “YES” to a healthy lifestyle and “NO” to underage drinking and underage cannabis use. Thank you for all you do each day to keep kids substance-free.
-The Ask, Listen, Learn Team
Visit www.teens.drugabuse.gov to learn more about National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week.