Stop your Teen from Binge Drinking

Every parent wants to stop their child from making mistakes. But when it comes to drinking alcohol, research shows there’s nothing parents can do to stop their teen from taking a drink.

While you can’t do much to stop your child from tasting alcohol, you can do something to prevent heavy drinking. A new study from Brigham Young University found that parenting style strongly influences whether your teen will binge drink (five drinks or more in a row). According to the study of nearly 5,000 teens between the ages of 12 and 19, parents whose are indulgent – meaning they are high on warmth and low on accountability – are most likely to have a teen who binge drinks. In fact, the children of indulgent parents are at triple of the risk of teens with parents who are high on warmth but also high on accountability.

Strict parenting isn’t the answer either. Parents who are high on accountability but low on warmth will double the risk of having a teen who binge drinks. Looks like the way to stop teenage binge drinking is to be a caring parent who sets boundaries and makes your child own up when they make a mistake.