NCJ Number
167268
Date Published
1995
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This booklet and accompanying tape cassettes are designed to help parents increase the knowledge and skills they need to help prevent their children from using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
Abstract
The booklet first identifies some of the factors that can influence children to use substances, notably peer pressure, stress, lack of activities, and lack of information. This is followed by an outline of those factors that can help a child resist the pressure and impulse to use drugs. These factors include safety and structure; belonging and membership; self- worth, status, and an ability to contribute; self-discipline; spirituality; sense of humor; independence, autonomy, and control over their lives; and closeness and several good relationships. Suggestions are offered for how schools, the community, and parents can help provide or develop these factors. Five basic drug prevention strategies are then discussed: providing information about drugs and their effects, building skills that help a child resist drug use, creating and providing alternatives to drug use, involving other people in prevention, and setting policies with a child regarding the use of drugs. Also included are a checklist for parents that can assist them in helping their children to resist drug use and a list of warning signs that a child may be using drugs. One of the cassette tapes features a family (father, mother, and daughter with a physical disability) sharing their experiences as a family whose child has chosen not to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. The second cassette tape features three parents of children with disabilities discussing their experiences and suggestions on decision-making and locating resources. Appended list of prevention and disability resources, statistics on juvenile drug use, what a child needs to know about drugs, major steps in decision-making, how to practice saying "No," and 13 references