FRIENDS PLAY BIGGEST ROLE ON WHETHER KIDS DRINK

Study targets youths 12 to 15

THE behaviour of friends plays the biggest role in children's alcohol use in
early adolescence, a new report has found.

Its findings are based on data for 4,296 adolescents aged 12 to 15 who were
part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.

The report comes a week after 15-year-old Jessica Vandenheuvel of Kenora was
found dead in an abandoned house that caught fire. The Grade 9 student had
just been suspended from school for showing up drunk.

In the national survey, more than 22 per cent of kids aged 12 to 15 said
they had been drunk at least once. Among 15-year-olds, this proportion was
44 per cent. Two-thirds of adolescents who reported that all or most of
their friends were using alcohol had, themselves, been drunk at least once.
Only eight per cent of those who reported having few or no friends who used
alcohol had ever been drunk.

One in five confessed to having smoked marijuana.

The youngest children in the survey sample weren't asked about
hallucinogens, but 11 per cent of the 14- and 15-year-olds reported having
tried these drugs. Because this is the first-ever study of alcohol and drug
use by this age group, the authors can't say whether those figures are
higher or lower than previous generations of young teens.

"We do know it is a critical age," said Lori Middendorp, supervisor for
community-based youth services at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.

The AFM is seeing kids at the "critical decision-making years" -- around the
ages of 13 and 14 -- who are wrestling with substance use.

"What you're finding in adolescence is, it's a time of curiosity and a time
of extremes," she said. "One day someone's your best friend. The next day
you're the worst of enemies. One day you're a vegetarian and the next day
you'd like a steak. Add in substance use and you may see some extreme
events," she said. "They say, 'I wonder what it's like to drink?' and drink
so much they're at risk."

Parents should give their adolescents scientific and objective information
about substances and the risks, she said. Rather than fear-mongering, adults
should be honest with kids who are asking about the effects of alcohol.

Parents should also acknowledge that some people say they use it because it
helps them relax. "Then we can turn around and address drawbacks," said
Middendorp.

If they aren't honest, parents risk losing their credibility, she said.

"Make your expectations clear to kids. Have a discussion with regard to
healthy decision-making. Usually the talk was 'don't do it', and that was
the beginning and end of the discussion."

Researchers took a snapshot of adolescent drinking and drug use from the
1998/99 results of the National Longitudinal Survey -- an ongoing study
that's followed kids growing up across Canada for more than a decade.

Overall, 42 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds reported they had consumed at
least one drink of alcohol -- a bottle of beer or wine cooler, or a glass of
wine -- at some point in their lives. By age 15, the proportion rose to 66
per cent.

Of those young teens who did drink, the average age at which they first
imbibed was 12.4 years; the average age at which they first got drunk was
13.2 years. They first used drugs, on average, somewhere between 13.1 years
and 13.8 years of age, depending on the drug.