The AET have trialled a new approach with a group called Social Sense who run a programme called RU Different? in schools to make young people aware that most young people don’t smoke, get drunk or try drugs – we engaged with 9 schools across Halton to involve parents in a fun questionnaire about how many children in their school they thought were drinking and who supplied them with alcohol!
We did this as the research shows that children in year 9 form their drinking habits largely based on the behaviours of parents and carers and the house rules we set them – and whether we stick to them too!.
Often the problem for parents/guardians is the lack of knowledge of where to set boundaries, or how to begin conversations about alcohol with their children. We often base our expectations on ‘what we were doing at that age’, when in fact, underage drinking has halved over the past 20 years. Some of us are too laid back and others too strict – which can lead to unsupervised risky drinking – what we need is ‘tough love’!
Piloted in 9 schools across Halton, we combined the latest technology with traditional emails and newsletters, to tempt parents to test their perceptions through five questions!
Most encouraging of all is that 78% of parents/guardians said they will now change the way they talk to their children about alcohol!
Click here to view the report.
