New Maine Survey Shows “Large Gap” Between Parents’ Expectations, Teen Drinking
Saturday, January 5th, 2008Editor’s note: the blog is back after a short hiatus. We will resume our regular posting schedule this week.
Yesterday, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network alerted us to some new data from the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey, which revealed a “large gap” between parents’ beliefs and teens’ behaviors in regard to alcohol consumption:
“According to a statewide phone survey, 26 percent of Maine parents believed that their high school-aged teens had never had more than a few sips of alcohol, while 65 percent of Maine high school teens said they’ve had at least one alcoholic drink.
More than 20 percent of teens acknowleged having had more than five drinks in a row, defined as binge drinking, while less than 2 percent of parents believed that their children had engaged in such behavior.”
Binge drinking is already happening at the high school level, and Legal Age 21 isn’t doing much to prevent this behavior. The full surveys are available here – let us know what you think in the comments.