Teenage Drinking Can Increase in Summer. Keep Your Children Alcohol Free.

Teen drinking is a constant battle for parents, schools, and society. The damage alcohol does to their brains, short- and long-term, is devastating, and teens never seem to understand or care about the consequences. During the summer, teens have even more opportunities to harm themselves and potentially others by drinking. Find out more about summertime teenage drinking from Primo Prevention and what you can do to prevent it.

The Summer Provides More Opportunity for Teenage Drinking

Teens usually think of summer as a time to enjoy being away from school. But for educators, parents, and society as a whole, summer usually signals a spike of unsupervised teens roaming around. With parents working and school not in session, teens have more opportunities to misbehave and drink. According to Federal Trade Commission Consumer Information, teens usually get their alcohol from friends and family. Whether they are getting an older sibling or friend to buy them alcohol or they’re pulling alcohol from their family’s liquor cabinet, most teens get their supplies from the people they’re closest to.

Teens are also more likely to binge drink as opposed to drinking responsibly. Research published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health say that events such as parties, weekends, summer and spring breaks, and holidays may increase the occurrence of binge drinking, endangering teens and those they interact with even more during the summer months.

Teenage drinking in any amount leads to impaired judgement and increased risk of drinking and driving, unprotected sexual activity, injuries, and long-term developmental problems. This summer, it’s important to be aware of your teens and what they are doing in their increased free time away from supervision.

Keep Teens Away from Alcohol by:

A good place to start in preventing your teens from drinking over the summer is to eliminate any opportunities for them to get the alcohol in the first place. Preventing them from having the temptation to drink by removing their unsupervised free-time will help ensure they don’t drink. If you have children or teens at home during the summer, keep them busy with activities.

Signing teens up for sports, religious activities, supervised clubs, summer school, library events, and more can help keep them busy and out of the house where they could be tempted to drink. Be sure the activities they are a part of have a responsible adult supervising to ensure that drinking or other misbehavior doesn’t occur.

In addition to keeping them busier during the summer, it’s also a good idea to talk to your teens and children about alcohol. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH) reports that children whose parents are more involved in their lives are less likely to drink alcohol. Build a strong relationship with your kids and be open and honest about alcohol and the consequences of drinking before they are ready and able to do so responsibly. For more ideas on how to talk to children or for informational brochures on teen drinking, contact Primo Prevention. We have a large library of resources that can help make the conversation with teens easier and more informative.

Reduce Availability to Reduce Risk of Teenage Drinking

In addition to trying to keep them busy so they can’t get alcohol, it’s also a good idea to minimize their access to alcohol. As most teens access alcohol at home or from a close friend, it is important to take certain precautions such as:

• Lock up any alcoholic beverages so they are out of reach for underaged individuals.
• Monitor your alcohol at home. Know how many bottles are in your home and frequently test for potency and amount.
• Watch your teens and children at family parties and don’t distribute alcohol to underaged teens.
• Monitor kids and teens at sport events, birthday parties, holiday parties, and sleepovers.
• Know your child’s friends and families. Talk to their friends’ parents on what you expect when your child is in their care. Be clear on alcohol rules.
• Monitor driving more strictly to keep your children and others safe.

When summer rolls around and your teens are ready for fun, make sure they are ready for age-appropriate fun that does not involve alcohol. For more information on teen drinking, view our alcohol prevention products and talk to your teens today.