Teens and substance use — what can parents do?

Objective: To help adults manage risks relating to adolescent substance use in line with evidence-based prevention principles.

Background: Smoking and drinking among 15–16-year-old school students are showing signs of decline, but there are concerns over potentially risky cannabis use and the challenges posed by new addictive behaviours. These are among the findings from the latest report from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). There are some aspects of parental life that are always — no matter the generational, geographical or cultural background — a cause for concern. These worries include whether adolescents might be experimenting with psychoactive substances. Parents tend to take honesty and openness seriously, in order to be a positive example.

At the same time, their overwhelming priority is to keep their children safe and healthy by preventing high-risk behaviours. In this webinar, we will explore evidence-based practices (i.e., what-to-do and what-not-to-do) to help address the hot topic of ‘drugs’ (whether legal or illegal) with teens from a parental perspective.