Pressure + Familiarity + Access = USE

Boys and girls are both subject to peer pressure; however, our daughters (as opposed to our sons) are more likely to go with the flow of the crowd ¹. Additionally, a recent study on peer influence and drinking revealed that when it comes to best friends, while same-sex friendships influence each other equally, in mixed-sex friendships, boys have influence over their female friends’ drinking patterns, yet girls’ have no effect on their male friends’ drinking behaviors ².

With romantic relationships, studies show that youth who spend 25 or more hours a week with their significant other are almost five times likelier to get drunk and smoke marijuana than youth who spend less then 10 hours per week with their boyfriend/girlfriend. This may be due to less time spent with family, less time engaged in other activities or it may be that one is encouraging the other to experiment. And as your tween becomes a teen, age also becomes a factor. Teen girls whose boyfriends are two or more years older are at an even higher risk of drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana ³.   

Help Protect Your Child:

• Get to know your child’s friends and their parents (especially a boyfriend or girlfriend).
• Monitor (and limit, if necessary) your child’s time spent with a boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Be present (as much as possible) when your child has friends in your home.
• If you cannot be home, make sure another trusted adult supervises your child when friends are over.
• Before your child attends a party, check-in with the parents to make sure alcohol and other drugs will not be available (and that a parent will be actively chaperoning).
• Make your home the fun (yet safe) place for the kids to hang out.

Sources: ^1,3 Califano, Joseph A; How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid: The Straight Dope For Parents, 2009. ² Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 47, No. 1: The Gender Structure of Adolescent Peer Influence on Drinking, 2006.