Parents Hold Power to Protect Kids in Prom Season

Parents have the power to protect their teens from the dangers of drugs and alcohol during the party-filled prom and graduation season.

So says Felicia Scocozza, Executive Director of the Riverhead Community Awareness Program, Inc., (CAP).

On Monday, the Riverhead Coalition for Safe and Drug-Free Youth will host a presentation, "The Power of Parents," led by Lissa Harris, program specialist for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The parent workshop will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Riverhead High School Auditorium.

Alcohol kills more teens than all other illegal drugs combined, Scocozza said. To that end, the 45-minute workshop will offer parents research-proven strategies to help protect their kids from the potentially deadly dangers of underage drinking.

Each parent or caregiver who attends will receive a handbook to teach them communication skills necessary to talk to their teens about alcohol. The presentation and handbook are based on scientifically proven results by Dr. Robert Turrisi and his colleagues from Pennsylvania State University.

According to Scocozza, research shows that 74 percent of kids say their parents are the leading influence on their decisions about drinking alcohol.

"Research has shown that parents who communicated and were involved with their children at ages 10 and 11, set clear expectations for their children’s behavior, practiced good supervision and consistent discipline, and minimized conflict in the family had children who, at ages 11 and 12, were more likely to see alcohol use as harmful and less likely to initiate alcohol use early," she said. "They were also less likely to misuse alcohol at ages 17 to 18."

In addition, Scocozza said, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, lack of parental support, monitoring, and communication and lack of feeling close to their parents have been significantly related to frequency of drinking, heavy drinking, and drunkenness among adolescents. 

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Scocozza said, "protective factors against adolescent alcohol use include strong bonds with the family, parental monitoring with clear rules of conduct within the family unit and involvement of parents in the lives of their children, and adoption of conventional norms about alcohol and drug use."