How to talk with children about cigarettes, drugs and alcohol, to once and for all protect their "bloodstains" from their harmful effects? The answer to this question was sought by experts from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The researchers asked 561 sixth-eighth grade students to talk about what their parents told them about cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana.
It turned out that about 80% of parents did not just talk with their children about drugs, but told them that they themselves had once tried to smoke, drink or use drugs.
The following pattern emerged: the more often parents expressed regret about their own negative experience of acquaintance with drugs in the past, the more often they repeated that they would never repeat the bad things that happened to them, teenagers were more inclined to look positively at alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Children generally tend to think: “If my parents did this, then it’s not so bad and dangerous.”
And vice versa, when the parents did not mention anything about personal experience, but only emphasized the harm that smoking and drug and alcohol use caused, the child showed a negative attitude towards the subject under discussion.
In connection with the results of a new study, scientists advise keeping their past secret from children, even if this past was negative. You can talk with children about the dangers of these substances, about how to avoid them, tell instructive stories about people who are in trouble because of drugs or alcohol. But in no case and under any circumstances not to say: I myself once tried it ...
