How to get your fifth-grader to stop drinking
Kids! They drink the darnedest things!
Especially if they’re allowed to watch R-rated movies before their 17th birthday.
Dartmouth Medical School researchers surveyed more than 2,400 kids, grades five through eight, who reported that they’d never drunk alcohol. Within 13 to 26 months between the original survey and a follow up interview, 3 percent of the kids said they’d started drinking.
The kids were also asked whether their parents allowed them to watch R-rated movies “sometimes” or “all the time.”
Analysis showed a strong link between viewing R-rated movies and underage drinking. And this link remained strong even among kids who said their parents frequently set and enforced limits.
So if you want to stop young teens from drinking–that’s easy! Just don’t let them see R-rated films. Done!
On a side note: I have to admit I recently saw Hot Tub Time Machine. That’s right–it’s a hot tub AND a time machine. It’s a ludicrous, silly, low comedy, loaded with R-rated debauchery, but, yeah, I laughed.
Here’s what I’m getting at: Do not–DO NOT–let your fifth grader see Hot Tub Time Machine.
Trust me on this one.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Source:
“Study: Parental Guidance on Movies Curbs Drinking” Dartmouth Medical School press release, 4/26/10, dms.dartmouth.edu
