Teens at Risk and Large Allowances
Teens at risk have no business being the recipient of a fat allowance. Yet, that often is the case. Parents often assuage their guilt for not being in their teens life by buying their forgiveness. It’s a harsh evaluation but that is what it amounts to. Teen age drug abuse and illegal alcohol consumption has to be paid for by someone and , sadly enough, it’s often the well meaning parent that inadvertently foots the bill.
A recent study in the UK suggest that allowances especially abet alcohol consumption.
“In a study of more than 10,000 15- and 16-year-olds, British researchers found that teens with larger allowances were more likely to drink frequently, binge or drink on street corners and other public places.
The large majority of the teenagers in the study — 88 percent — had tried alcohol at some point. But risky drinking was particularly common among teenagers with more pocket money, presumably because they were better able to buy their own alcohol.”
Unlike America, experts in the UK tend to feel that teens who are introduced to responsible drinking inside the home will have a more mature approach than teens who sneak. For those troubled teenagers who are the recipient of $20 or more per week developed a drinking problem
Relevant Tags:alcohol consumption, drinking problem, responsible drinking, teens at risk, troubled teenagers“Put simply,” Bellis said, “by the age of 14 most children in the UK have drank some alcohol, and they are either learning to drink it from parents in a secure home environment or from peers in a park, bar or on a street corner.”
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But they should also make sure they know how their kids are spending their money, he noted. In this study, teens whose parents gave them more than 10 pounds — or roughly $20 — each week were more likely to use alcohol in particularly risky ways.”
