Troubled Teens Resources

“Parents can make a difference by keeping promotional merchandise from their kids. My guess is that many parents think it’s harmless: your kid has a Budweiser T-shirt, it’s just funny. But it probably is a subtle communication to kids that beer drinking is cool.”

Again and again we find that part and parcel of successful teen crisis interventions is to provide the education needed to prevent the crisis to begin with.Part of educating your at-risk teens is modeling the behavior that you demand that they adhere too. Treating serious issues lightly can result in the teen taking any parents’ admonitions with a grain of salt.

A recent Rand study (H/T to Save Our Children) of 1,786 South Dakota sixth graders revealed that the impact of alcohol advertising has a bearing on whether a child will gravitate towards alcohol. This includes the seemingly innocuous appearance of alcohol brands appearing on t-shirts and ball caps.

“The study of children in the sixth and seventh grades found that those exposed to alcohol advertising at high levels – from television, magazines, in-store displays and promotional items like T-shirts and posters – were 50 percent more likely to drink and 36 percent more likely to intend to drink than children whose exposure to alcohol advertising was very low.”

This isn’t just confined to teenagers. Professionals suggest that you start educating kids as young as 5th and 6th grade about the advertising that they see. Consider it an exercise in critical thinking skills. It is a critical lesson because alcohol manufacturers will not be the only ones trying to sell a teenager. So will the drug dealer. Parents have to make the better sales pitch.