Who drinks more, and more often: African American teens or white teens? It’s easy to make speculations based on stereotypes or our personal experiences, but what about actual data?

According to a 2011 study by researchers at Duke University (which analyzed data from 72,561 young people, aged 12 to 17), white, American Indian and Hispanic teens all had higher rates of drug and alcohol use than African American (and Asian) teens.

What was unclear from that study was why African American teens drink less than their white counterparts—something that researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have sought to understand.

They call it the Tween to Teen project—wherein researchers followed 400 8 to 10 year olds for 7 and a half years—in order to determine if race affects personality traits, which in turn may affect drinking habits.

What they found was this: White teens are more prone to thrill-seeking, which is associated with high alcohol use, while African American teens are more impulsive.

This seems a bit confusing, since impulsivity would seem to lead to a what-the-hell attitude toward drinking. Also confounding is the fact that while African American teens drink less, they have more alcohol-related problems than their white counterparts. This points to possible economic influences on drinking behaviors and outcomes.

And then there’s culture, which also plays a significant role in drinking habits.

As reported in Medical Express, Sarah L. Pedersen, one of the study’s authors, said: “Studies have shown that the African American culture may hold more conservative views about drinking compared to the majority culture in the United States. For example, African American adolescents may feel that their parents and friends disapprove of their drinking more than their European American counterparts.”

So what does this mean for the layperson, trying to interpret the study? Drinking habits and outcomes can’t just be traced to fixed characteristics such as race—or personality. Rather, they are formed through a complex interaction of factors, including culture and economics.

When delivering anti-drinking messages to tweens and teens, cultural and racial differences should be taken into account. It’s not a one-size-fits-all message.

Photo Source

Each week, we post short interviews with interesting people about their thoughts and feelings on women and drinking. There is such a wide array of perspectives about this topic, and we are excited to gain insight into as many as possible and to share them with you. 

Chloe Caldwell is the author of the essay collection, Legs Get Led Astray. Her non-fiction has appeared in The Rumpus, Nylon Magazine, The Nervous Breakdown, Chronogram, The Frisky, The Sun Magazine, SMITH Magazine, Jewcy, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Freerange Nonfiction and The Faster Times.She is the founder and curator of the Hudson River Loft Reading Series and has taught Creative Writing workshops at Omega Teen Camp, The Hudson Opera House, and Crow Arts Manor. Chloe splits her time living in upstate New York and Portland, Oregon.

Chloe Caldwell: I tried sips of my dad’s beer as a kid, I’m pretty sure. Maybe around age nine. When I was twelve-ish, I had a bunch of girlfriends sleep over and we snuck into the pantry and drank some disgusting expired spirits. Or maybe we were just drinking balsamic vinegar.

How did/does your family treat drinking?

My parents both drink, but we never had an alcoholism problem in our family. Sometimes my dad will drink a beer with dinner, sometimes he won’t. My mom likes her red wine and nothing else. There’s always a decent amount of alcohol at family gatherings.

How do you approach alcohol in your every day life?

I try to be smart. I’ll ask myself if I really feel like drinking. This is new for me. I used to just drink more than I should. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. I’m trying to be more mindful in everything I do–drinking and eating, especially.

Have you ever had a phase in your life when you drank more or less?

I drank the most when I was twenty-one through twenty-three. It’s when I was living in New York City, and I was drinking something of a disgusting amount of mixed drinks most days and nights.

What’s your drink of choice? Why?

Red wine. It relaxes me. Holy shit, I sound exactly like my mom.

Can you tell us about the best time you ever had drinking?

I’ve had lots of good times drinking. But in truth, I think the best time drinking I’ve ever had was in high school. My senior class was really tight and on Friday and Saturday nights we’d always go to a  boy named Lars’s barn, to hang out. The barn was empty except for a large mirror covering one wall. We danced for hours to Kanye West and Eminem and R.Kelly and drank Budweiser and Coors Lite.

What about the worst time?

Any time I cry in public or act like an aggressive douche-bag.

Do you have a favorite book, song, or movie about drinking?

I would like to read Are You There Vodka? It’s me Chelsea. I like when Elliott Smith sings, “With an open container from Seven Eleven…” and when Connor Oberst sings, “Cause there’s this switch that gets hit and it all stops making sense and in the middle of drinks maybe the fifth or sixth, I’m completely alone at a table of friends…I feel nothing for them, I feel nothing, nothing.” And Hush Arbors have a song where they sing, “There’s whiskey in that bottle and blood on the floor..”

What do you like most about drinking?

That it changes me.

Why do, or don’t you, choose to drink?

I think any time we use a substance, be it coffee, alcohol, or drugs, it’s to escape ourselves a little bit. Like in The Lemonheads song “Drug Buddy” he sings, “I’m too much with myself, I wanna be someone else.”

A couple of weeks ago, Starbucks—with 10,700 U.S. stores—announced that it will be serving wine and beer (and savory snacks) in a handful of locations in Atlanta and Southern California by the end of the year. These locations join plans for several coffee-cum-bar Starbucks in Chicago, and the already five existing coffee/bars in the company’s hometown, Seattle, and one in Portland.

Apparently, the change in the coffee-only focus is a response to customer feedback for additional options to relax in Starbucks’ coffee houses. “As our customers transition from work to home, many are looking for a warm and inviting place to unwind and connect with the people they care about,” said Clarice Turner, Starbucks’ senior vice president, U.S. Operations in a release. “At select stores where it is relevant for the neighborhood, we are focused on creating an atmosphere where our customers can relax with a friend, a small bite to eat and a cup of coffee or glass of wine.”

After the decision to roll out the booze to other cities, Poll Position conducted a phone survey of 1,113 registered voters and asked the following: Starbucks is beginning to serve beer and wine in some of its stores.  Do you think that it is appropriate for Starbucks to serve beer and wine?

Respondents were divided with 39 percent saying yes, 39 percent saying no and 22 percent describing themselves as undecided. The poll’s administrators said men and women were divided on whether selling beer and wine is a good move for Starbucks.

Not surprisingly, men favored Starbucks selling beer and wine 49%-34%, while women opposed it 45%-30%.

After reading these results, I decided to take a poll of my own. I asked about 50 people, both men and women, ranging in age from 15 to 75, what they thought about Starbucks’ transformation.

Some were opposed to the idea because of how alcohol will change the coffee-house atmosphere:

“I don’t like it.  Starbucks has a certain vibe that doesn’t include people getting buzzed on alcohol.”

“I like the café experience, sitting there and reading. I don’t want my café to be my local pub also.”

“I think it goes against the environment that Starbucks tries to give off which is a warm, friendly coffee shop. If you start selling alcohol it will lose its peaceful sense.”

“For me, the two don’t mix well–Starbucks is a spot to go for coffee during the day and, at least for now, I still adhere to the 5:00 cocktail rule!”

Some liked the idea of moving towards the European model:

“It recasts Starbucks more in the mold of a European café.  Cappuccino in the morning, Prosecco by night.”

“In Europe, you see coffee bars also selling wine. Starbucks provides a sense of community, a gathering place, and wine always goes with that. The only thing is, I think they’d need to adapt the decor/atmosphere–less utilitarian, more luxe, sexier lighting perhaps. And music.”

“Kids in america are underexposed to alcohol in a ‘part of life’ way.  It can be a good thing to have it around in a place which is not a bar where people act more responsibly…My theory is the more it is not a big deal, the less the kids will make a big deal.

Some expressed concern about teens:

“I think it is horrible. Starbucks is, for some kids, a safe haven, and I’m not sure why they need to introduce alcohol into the mix.”

“As long as they are checking IDs, I’m fine with it.”

“I’m concerned because so many young people are already abusing the amount of caffeine they consume in a day. Then add the temptation of alcohol (and how easy it is to get a fake ID to purchase it).”

“So long as they carefully monitor minors, I see no problem in expanding the line. Having said that, there was something cozy and wholesome about having a non-mood altering zone there.”

There are those who try to stay away from alcohol:

“Total turnoff.  You go there for the calm, for the sip on coffee, open your laptop feel. Not to get drunk.”

“I think selling beer and wine essentially makes Starbucks into a bar—so many people in recovery try so hard to stay out of bars (and we spend a lot of time in coffee houses!)”

“The other night, around 5 pm, I had some time to kill in NYC before meeting friends for dinner, and I didn’t want to go into a bar alone but I thought a glass of wine might be nice. I chose Starbucks instead, and got coffee but fantasized about wine. Still–I think there should be some alcohol-free zones, so I’m on the fence, leaning toward compassion for those who need not to be around it!”

Some just feel strongly:

“I think it is a big mistake. It would probably make me boycott the company whose stores I am currently in about two times a day.”

“I think wine fits more with an upscale coffee store; perhaps select beers, but Bud at Starbucks makes no sense—might as well buy eggs and milk too.”

“I’m fine with it. It broadens their business opportunity and should help strengthen sales,  something all enterprises could use these days.”

“I wholeheartedly support their decision, feels a bit more like the European relationship to wine and beer — normalizes the place of these drinks in our culture.”

There are those who cover all the bases:

“My initial reaction was, “Oh no!”  I suppose I feel that way because I view Starbucks as a calm and peaceful place to read the paper and meet friends while enjoying a nice cup of coffee or tea.  I suppose in some sense that a nice glass of wine or beer would not detract from that experience.  In fact, many people would enjoy a good read or conversation with a glass of wine or beer.  I suppose it is the other problems associated with alcohol that concern me — over-consumption, under-age drinking, and the trouble that accompanies those things that puts doubt in my mind as to why this is necessary.  I like Starbucks just the way it is.  I would prefer to go elsewhere for my glass of wine. I am sure this decision by Starbucks is economically motivated to increase sales by capturing a new group of consumers.  I guess I keep thinking that I like Starbucks just the way it is and if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

And those that think, why not?

“When people get hung over, they can switch to coffee. With wars and the economy, it is such a minor thing.”

“We do not have prohibition any longer and live in a free market society, so they should be allowed to sell beer and wine.”

Needless to say, the subject of coffee houses morphing into bars is a loaded one. It seems a risky move for Starbucks, but only time will tell how the new metropolitan “coffee/bars” will be received. As far as I’m concerned, a few hours of work while sipping a latte is nice, but so is capping the afternoon with a glass of cabernet. It’s important that teens have a place to congregate, so maybe they can head to the diner, or one of the frozen yogurt places now cropping up on every corner.

Photo source 1

Photo source 2

Gummi bears soaking in vodka

What will teens come up with next? From Detroit to Dallas, the latest effort to sneak booze into their system is via gummi candy–bears, worms, or Halloween rats–the shape is of little importance. What matters is that this is a way to “drink” straight vodka, which is absorbed by the Gummis after soaking them in a glass or bowl of vodka. And presto–the Gummi Bears are now “Boozy Bears.”

Difficult for parents, teachers and even cops to detect, the Gummis pack a potent punch of booze, which can be dangerous. How-to sites and You Tube videos provide simple instructions for kids seeking to concoct these alcohol-infused treats. So parents beware–if you have a teen who is suddenly craving lots of Gummi bears, you may want to taste one first.

Photo Source 1

Recently, I was riding in the car with my 13-year-old daughter, listening to Katie Perry sing, “It’s a blacked out blur, but I’m pretty sure it ruled.” I have to admit that I—like our Drinking Diaries contributor, Patty Nasey—got concerned. “Would this make underage drinking more appealing to all the zillions of kids who idolize Katie Perry?” I wondered aloud.

My daughter gave me a withering look. “No one drinks because someone sings about it.”

I figured a lecture on subliminal seduction was useless, so I shut my mouth and kept my righteous thoughts to myself. But still, it got me thinking: How are teenagers’ habits formed by what they see and hear on television, in magazines, and on social networking sites?

A recent study in the UK by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation provides some fascinating clues.

As you would expect, they found that the media is saturated with alcohol and drinking, which is mostly presented as a normal part of characters’ lives and social interactions. Negative consequences were infrequently presented, and tended to focus on the extreme (i.e. violence).

As you might also expect, women drinkers and men drinkers are portrayed differently. While drinking is a bonding exercise for men; drinking for women is portrayed as either something glamorous celebrities do, or as problematic, rendering women weepy, overly sexual, or interfering with their mothering, for example.

Social networking is a big part of young peoples’ drinking culture, documenting nights out but also informally marketing alcohol products to their friends (such as when they “like” a certain brand on facebook).

A more surprising finding was that celebrity behavior was unlikely to influence alcohol consumption directly. Rather than emulating celebrities depicted drinking to excess (think Lindsay Lohan), young people tended to dislike them.

Additionally, the young people surveyed as part of the study are savvy consumers of media who understand that celebrity behavior as depicted in the media is exaggerated to sell products and tell a story.

So I can heave a sigh of relief that my teen won’t emulate Kim Kardashian, who is fond of sipping wine in bed?

According to this particular study—yes. Compared with the influence of friends, young people’s total media usage (excluding advertising, which was not assessed) and celebrity behavior did not seem to have a direct influence on their drinking.

Instead, (often incorrect) estimates of their friends’ drinking and the perceived acceptability of drinking by friends were found to be much better predictors. Also, their parents’ alcohol use influenced their attitudes toward alcohol much more than media.

So it seems that my daughter was right, and my Katie Perry worries are misplaced.  It’s like that old adage, “Kindness begins in the home.” Instead of looking to outside influences, I should examine my own relationship with alcohol, and keep a close eye on my kids’ friends.

As far as the media goes, the authors of the study came to a fascinating conclusion: “The challenge, therefore, is to infuse accurate depictions of alcohol use into these media where appropriate without compromising creativity and editorial independence.”

Since many teens drink alcohol without disastrous consequences, why not present more realistic depictions of drinking in the media? This is controversial, since no one wants to be seen as promoting underage drinking.

It’s the old all-or-nothing mentality, so what we’re left with is the “blacked-out blur.”

Photo Source 1

Photo Source 2

In less than a week, my daughter will be off to college. Sitting on a beach chair a few weeks ago, her eyes glanced at her computer screen under the glare of the sun and the ocean only steps away. I assumed she was watching some incredibly gripping movie from which she couldn’t tear herself away. But when I inquired, she rolled her eyes and explained that she was watching an alcohol awareness video—a mandatory assignment for her university.

Despite the efforts made by educational institutions, new psychological research suggests that the pitfalls from all those jello shots and games of beer pong aren’t bad enough to make students stop drinking.

On the USA Today website, an article, “College Drinking is Liberating, and a Good Excuse,” reports on why the efforts to raise awareness are not working.

“We thought if we could demonstrate to students that their performance deteriorated under alcohol, they would be convinced that their alcohol consumption has put them at risk,” says psychologis E. Scott Geller, director of the Center for Applied Behavior Systems at Virginia Tech. But “knowing that one is impaired, physically and even emotionally, did not seem to reduce alcohol consumption.”

Geller, who’s been studying alcohol awareness since the mid-1980s, states clearly that the alcohol education hasn’t worked. “We have shown in several studies that their intentions influence their behavior. If they intend to get drunk, it’s difficult to stop that.”

Going for the effects is what it’s all about. One student, Brandie Pugh, a senior at Ohio University, says in the article: “I think everybody’s aim is to get drunk on the weekend. It’s not about the taste of the alcohol. It’s about the effects of it. It’s about the lowered inhibitions.”

In another study, researcher Laina Bay-Cheng, an associate professor of social work at the University at Buffalo-State University of New York, found that when teenagers drink, they think they can use their intoxicated state as an excuse for their actions. Students in her focus groups–there were 97 teens ranging in age from 14 to 17–described alcohol as emboldening and said it offers “liquid courage,” a phrase other researchers also have cited. Colleges, she says, need to “acknowledge and reckon with” alcohol’s appeal.

According to Bay Cheng, another result of drinking is that it can be an excuse for young women to “act out being sexually assertive, carefree, liberated,” she explains. ”If you have sex, you’re a slut, and if you don’t, you’re a prude — but drinking allows you to do both. You can go out, get drunk, have sex and the next day say, ‘I’m still a good girl.’”

In the USA Today article, Pugh goes on to say that she has seen this scenario play out on her campus repeatedly: “‘I was drunk so I hooked up with that guy.’ ‘I was drunk so I missed my class this morning.’ ‘I was drunk so I got in a fight.’ If it’s something they’re not proud of, it gives them an excuse.”

After next Wednesday, I’ll hope from afar that my daughter doesn’t ever feel that she needs to use alcohol as an excuse for anything.

photo source 1

photo source 2

For those of us who have watched–and enjoyed–the epic frat party film, Animal House, it’s easy to see that these boys are having one good, drunken time throughout. According to a recent study, the alcohol-induced male elation is not purely fictional.

The study, published in Biological Psychology, shows that men experience greater pleasure form drinking alcohol than women do. Apparently, liquor triggers the male brain to release a higher amount of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes euphoria and pleasure.

When the high subsides, however, it’s not all fun and beer pong. Researchers say that the additional dopamine may help expain why men, especially those who can hold their liquor, are twice as likely as women to become alcoholics.

“It’s not just that people who release more dopamine like it better,” says John H. Krystal, chair of the Yale University psychiatrity department and one of 11 authors of the study. “They also learn to want it more.”

On two separate days, the researchers tested how the brains of 21 young social drinkers reacted to alcohol. On one day, the men and women were given juice mixed with a tiny amount of alcohol. Then the researchers used PET scanners to measure the dopamine release in the subjects’ brain. They expected the effect to be minimal, Krystal says, and it was. But they wanted to control for the possibility that people would feel euphoric just because they thought they were getting drunk. On the second day, when the subjects were given stronger drinks, dopamine levels were higher–and the men’s brains released more than twice as much dopamine as the women’s.

The researchers’ goal is to develop ways to “damp down” dopamine release in the brains of people predisposed to alcoholism. With the use of medications and other treatments, young drinkers with a family history of alcoholism may be able to lessen their chances of becoming problem drinkers.

Photo source

I recently told a friend that one of the greatest things about my daughters getting older–they are now 15 and 17–is that I can finally watch good movies with them. In the last few months, films like Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Good Will Hunting and It’s Complicated came, were enjoyed, and left via Netflix (My Left Foot and Into the Wild await in our queue). Little makes me happier then curling up on the couch with my two girls, enveloped in a powerful film or a completely silly one. They are even willing to do subtitles these days.

When they were younger, I didn’t pay much attention to movie ratings, but was careful about what they saw. One daughter is still scarred from seeing Home Alone (she watched at a friend’s house, and it seemed a safe choice), and I strongly steered them away from movies with violence, particularly on the big screen. Bad language and sex scenes were typically unnecessary, but somehow, they didn’t seem that harmful. By now they’ve seen completely inappropriate films, like Borat and The Hangover, and a few night ago, I sat just rows behind my daughter and her friends at a screening of Bridesmaids. Bad judgement?

It is, perhaps, according to a recent study linking R-rated films to teenage drinking and drug use. Doctors at the Dartmouth School of Medicine interviewed thousands of middle-schoolers about their movie choices over two years, and the study results indicate that parents who steer their sons and daughters away from R-rated films usually prevail against peer pressure on kids to drink alcohol.

“We think this is a very important aspect of parenting, and one that is often overlooked,” says James D. Sargent, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) who served as principal investigator in the study. “The research to date suggests that keeping kids from R-rated movies can help keep them from drinking, smoking, and doing a lot of other things that parents don’t want them to do.”

Additional research conducted by Sargent also suggests that children who see R-rated movies become more prone to ‘sensation seeking’ and risk taking. ”We think seeing the adult content actually changes their personality,” Sargent says, adding that PG-13 movies, as well as many TV shows, also frequently portray drinking and other adult situations.

I believe you have to know your child before making a judgement call. I’m pretty sure I know mine, and right now she’s waiting for me to watch Crash.

Photo Source 1

Photo Source 2

Today, we are thrilled to present a Q & A with Alexandra Robbins, whose latest book, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School tells the tale of seven real teens grappling with the uncertainties of high school life—“the loner,” “the popular bitch,” “the nerd,” “the new girl,” “the gamer,” “the weird girl,” and “the band geek.”

In Geeks (out May 3^rd) Robbins addresses how drinking impacts the social lives of today’s teens, and comes up with some surprising and important findings.

Alexandra Robbins is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Pledged and The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids.

Here’s what she shared with us:

Drinking Diaries (DD): What is the average age teens start drinking? What are the predominant reasons they give for drinking?

Alexandra Robbins (AR): It depends on the study, but many surveys report that the average age students begin drinking is about 14. Many students told me that they start to feel pressure to drink in seventh grade. Anecdotally, teens say that they drink to have fun and to let off steam, but mostly to fit in.  They think that everyone else is drinking, so they figure they have to conform.  Also, they want to prove that there’s “more to them” than what classmates see at school.  They figure if they drink, that proves that they can party.

DD: In your book, you talk about a girl who was part of the popular crowd until she refused to drink. Her father was an alcoholic, so she wasn’t comfortable. She then turned to marijuana after her friends kicked her out of the group. What happens to kids who actively choose not to drink? Of the kids who choose not to drink, what reasons did they give?

AR: Many of them are viewed as outsiders because the popular crowd thinks that popularity equals partying and partying equals drinking, therefore students who don’t drink are not popular.

Let me say here though that one of the most important message in The Geeks is that there is a difference between being popular and being liked.  The “popular crowd” is only “popular” in the sense of reputation. Too many people forget this.  Being popular is only a meaningless status level.  It’s the kids who have the moxie to resist the pressure to conform who are going to be the admired and compelling adults.

DD: What are the most effective things kids do to resist the pressure to drink? Can you talk a bit about the term Straight Edge?

AR: Kids need to know that almost every student overestimates the number of classmates who drink and the amount they drink.  They think they’re missing out on what they believe to be a giant campus party scene.  In reality, not that many students drink.  Because the popular crowd is more likely to drink and those are the people who are most visible in school, it seems like more students drink than actually do.

To resist pressure, stick to your guns and vow to yourself that you’re not going to let people push you around.  Drinking doesn’t prove anything about you.  It can lead to moronic behavior.  It can kill.  Teenaged drinking is stupid; it means that kids who should be creative, interesting, and fun can’t think of anything better to do than tap a keg.

If you feel alone, there is a strong movement for people who don’t drink.  It’s called Straight Edge.  Regan, one of the main characters who I followed throughout a school year, was able to resist pressure by saying, “I’m Edge.”  And that was all she needed to say to people.  She told me, “I like having a term to identify myself.” She said, “I know I’m not the only one resisting. When you offer someone chocolate, and they say they’re diabetic, you don’t ask again. Straight Edge affords me that same respect.”

DD: With regard to teens and drinking, do you find geographic differences? What about economic differences (Private school versus public)? Religious differences? Or are the pressures the same everywhere?

AR: I see the same pressures pretty much everywhere.

DD:  You talk about the role of parents in teens’ decision to drink or not drink—can you say a little bit about that?

AR: Parents play a HUGE role in teens’ decisions about drinking.  In fact, studies show that parents who strongly disapprove of drinking are perceived by their kids as being more caring than other parents.

Here’s an excerpt from Geeks addressing this topic:

When parents equate normality with popularity, they encourage behavior that is of much more concern than unpopularity…

“The permissiveness of parents who want their kids to be popular can lead to tragic consequences,” according to Joseph Califano, Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The permissive parent debate runs hot and fierce.  Some parents insist that because teenagers are going to drink anyway, they might as well drink at home. “High school kids drink. . . . It’s going to happen,” the Cato Institute’s Radley Balko wrote in the Washington Post. “Surely there are more pressing concerns for the Washington area criminal justice system to address than parents who throw supervised parties for high school kids. These parents . . . know that underage drinking goes on and take steps to prevent that reality from becoming harmful. We ought to be encouraging that kind of thing, not arresting people for it.”

Actually underage drinking is harmful to begin with. Health risks aside, numerous studies show that children whose parents allow them to drink at home are at a higher risk for developing alcohol problems. By contrast, teenagers who don’t drink at home are less likely to drink anywhere.

–From The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

Last week, my daughter went to a frat party while visiting a friend at college. When I asked her the following morning what people were drinking, she told me that they’d been drinking Four Lokos, also known as “blackout in a can.”

It seemed like only minutes after she told me, Four Loko and the other companies that have been producing alcoholic beverages combining alcohol and caffeine were plastered all over the headlines.

In his “Tipsy Diaries” column, Frank Bruni described the beverage as a “flavored malt liquor that has caffeine as well as alcohol: a double whammy that permits its consumers — users might be a more felicitous term — to keep drinking longer and later than they would normally be able to in their inebriated states.”

Explained that way, it doesn’t sound so bad. But in actuality, Four Loko and its similar “cousins” revealed their dangerous impact when they caused several incidents in which “dozens of college students have been treated for alcohol poisoning after overindulging in Four Loko and similar products, and several states and universities then banned the drinks,” according to a piece in the Washington Post.

New York State Senator Chuck Schumer described the drinks as “dangerous and toxic brews.” And subsequently, the Food and Drug Administration deemed the alcoholic energy drinks unsafe and illegal.

I don’t know about you, but I’d say that caffeine has its role, and alcohol another. And now it seems that never the two shall meet–legally, anyway.

Photo Source

How can it be that eighth grade students thought they’d get away with bringing alcohol into school disguised in a water bottle? As I sat and read the news on a local online news publication, theLoop! my mouth dropped open in surprise.

Living in a community that has a very high rate of alcohol use among its teenage population, our kids begin the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in the public school in 5th grade at the age of 10. My son, now that age, will learn this year about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. And having two older kids who’ve already gone through this required school program, I can already predict that he will come home and put on a sad puppy-dog face, proclaiming how dangerous our dinnertime glass of wine is–and that it can kill us.

So, if they are starting this education so young, are kids so rebellious and empowered that they will not only experiment with friends and dip into their parents’ booze supply when they’re out to dinner, but also bring it into school to sip and share during lunchtime?

According to the Loop article, the students were suspended and upon their return to school will work with a “specialized substance abuse counselor.” I also wonder what the repercussions will be for the girl who was rushed via ambulance to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. The Loop wanted to know if readers thought the school acted appropriately. Call me naive, but I want to know how these kids had the guts to do it at all.

Photo source

Today, I read yet another article about parents arrested for letting their underage teens drink in (or this case, outside) their house. This time, it was two moms, who admittedly, were intoxicated themselves when the police came and found 15 teenagers drinking in their yard and making noise. In her defense, one of the moms said something to the effect of, “I can’t control my kid. Can you control yours?” When the officer asked her why she didn’t call the police, she said that it was Homecoming, and drinking is what kids do on Homecoming.

When we did a poll here at Drinking Diaries, asking “Would You Let Your Underage Teen Drink In Your House?” the answers were evenly split between: “Yes, but only sips of wine or beer at the dinner table” and “Yes, I’d rather have my kids drink under my supervision than out of sight. At least I’ll know what my kids are doing, then.” Fewer people said they would not allow their kids to drink in the house.

Here’s the real question: If you’d be willing to let your kids drink in your house, would you be willing to let them share a few beers with friends? What if they had 5 friends over, and they wanted to drink? What if it were 10? When does letting your teen drink in your house morph into hosting an underage drinking party–for which you can get arrested.

We want to know: What are your thoughts about this controversial issue? Are you willing to risk breaking the law, or do you (or will you) follow it to the letter?

Sad but true. A growing number of college-age women are starving themselves, not necessarily to lose weight, but to save calories for drinking alcohol and beer.

According to a recent article on HerCampus.com, a website started by three female Harvard students, the trend of late is Drunkorexia– a hybrid between anorexia, bulimia, and alcoholism. It was only a matter of time, say experts, before substance abuse and eating disorders merged.

Statistics from the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) suggest that 30 percent of women ages 18-24 skip meals in order to drink more, while an estimated up to 10 percent of college women suffer from some form of an eating disorder. And a 2002 study from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol suggested that 31 percent of college students met criteria for alcohol abuse, while another 6 percent met the criteria for alcohol dependence.

In the HerCampus.com piece, Nancy Mucciarone gets the inside scoop from a variety of college students who are on the front lines of the Drunkorexia craze.

One student described it like this: “One of my friends wouldn’t eat at all before she went out, then would get super drunk, and drunk eat a lot—pizza, macaroni and cheese, whatever she could get her hands on and would make herself throw it up. She’d claim she was so drunk and didn’t mean to throw up but it was clearly intentional.”

Photo Source

A Dartmouth study in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that 10 to 14-year-olds whose parents allow them to watch R-rated movies are more likely to drink as teens.

Researchers studied more than 2,400 children. Almost a quarter of the children whose parents allowed them to view R-rated movies frequently confessed to having tried alcohol behind their parents’ back. Only 3 percent of the students in the trial who were forbidden to watch R-rated movies had ever tried a drink.

Dr. James Sargent, the principal investigator in the study, said that parental regulation of their children’s media habits “is a very important aspect of parenting, and one that is often overlooked,” and that “keeping kids from R-rated movies can help keep them from drinking, smoking, and doing a lot of other things that parents don’t want them to do.”

Sargent says he thinks seeing adult content actually changes children’s personalities. There has been research to back up his claim. A study he and another team published earlier this year suggests that children who watch R-rated movies become more prone to risk taking and sensation seeking.

Then again, my own experience is totally different. When I grew up, my parents took me to the movies every Friday night, and I saw my share of R-rated movies starting at a pretty young age. Times have changed, though. I haven’t let my kids watch any R-rated movies, but they have watched some PG-13′s. Maybe movies have changed, too. I mostly saw political or “issue” movies with my parents–Serpico, The French Connection–with a few Woody Allen movies sprinkled in. I didn’t drink or smoke or have sex as a teen, but I sure saw a lot of drinking, smoking and sex in the movies. Also, TV is now more sophisticated than it was. About the riskiest thing I watched was Fantasy Island. Now kids can learn about teen pregnancy and three-ways on TV. So I’m not sure how I feel about this one.

And try telling my 12-year-old daughter she can’t watch Glee…

There’s always the school of thought that watching or reading about risky behaviors provides a safe way to learn about the world, without actually doing all those things.

Whatever your beliefs, one thing is clear: there’s a whole other layer of  parenting that seems necessary in this complex, media-saturated world. Adult children of alcoholics, who often fear that their children will inherit their gene pool, can take comfort in the research, which suggests that there are some things parents can do to influence their children’s future drinking habits. Or are there?

As a side note, I’ve found Commonsense Media helpful in filtering media, even if they do tend to be a bit strict.

What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear them.

It seems to me that people in recovery might get sick of reading self-help books. Sometimes, a memoir can be refreshing, especially for teens struggling with drinking issues. Koren Zailckas’ fantastic memoir, Smashed, comes to mind. Now award-winning Canadian young adult author, Susan Juby, has written Nice Recovery, about her years as a teenage alcoholic.

Juby, who is 41 and has been sober for more than 20 years, says, in an interview in the Vancouver Sun, that she wrote Nice Recovery to “honour where I came from…I didn’t get here by accident. I’m really lucky to be having a functional life. I thought maybe it would be instructive, or I would scare people straight through my extreme lameness.”

Juby doesn’t have children, but she does offer advice for parents on how to approach drug and alcohol abuse with their children: 1) Keep the lines of communication open; and 2) “Kids should have an awareness [of the difference] between social drinking and experimenting with drugs and what addiction looks like, because there’s a big difference. Most kids are going to experiment, but some of them are going to cross that line [into addiction], so it’s great if they can understand what that line looks like.”

Photo Source