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.