Pubdate: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 Source: Tooele Transcript Bulletin (UT) Copyright: 2006 - Tooele Transcript Bulletin Contact: http://www.tooeletranscript.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2489 Author: Karen Hunt CLASSES HELP PARENTS GUIDE KIDS' DECISIONS Becoming a doctor requires 12 years of elementary and secondary school, a four-year bachelor's degree and years of medical school and residencies. Becoming a teacher requires four years of university training and years of continuing education. To become a parent in today's society most people rely on the training they received in their own homes. That can be a problem, according to David Hawkins, a professor out of the University of Washington. Hawkins believes every parent & even good ones & benefit from ongoing training. "I think that it's great that our parents did a good job, but I think it's important to realize the issues our children are facing are different kinds of issues. I'm an old guy now, just turned 60, but when I was growing up & marjuana, that was something jazz musicians in Louisiana did, while today parents need to be aware of that," Hawkins said. While drug use, gang violence and other societal problems have escalated across the United States over the last decades, Hawkins has worked to determine indicators that can be targetted to safeguard youth. Today Hawkins' research shows how stronger families and communities can help. Hawkins' program, Communities that Care, is being used in Tooele County, along with his parenting classes Guiding Good Choices. The courses are funded through a federal National Institue on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant. Enrollment for the five-week courses is $15 and enrollment is open to parents of children 9-14 who attend Tooele City schools. Communities that Care was designed to prevent youth from using alcohol and other drugs and has also been found to help prevent delinquency. Guiding Good Choices works in conjunction to teach parents how to reduce critical risk factors that are especially influential during late elementary and middle school years. "What I would like to see in America is we change the culture," Hawkins said. Hawkins' programs are implemented in Tooele City by Milo Berry, and supported by the school district, police department, chamber of commerce, physicians, parents and other community leaders. "It's the way for a community to rescue themselves from risk factors which are creating problems for youth," explained Berry. Tooele City is one of 12 cities across the U.S. in a pilot program. Essentially Tooele City is under the microscope as researchers trace our eighth-graders over their lifespan to determine how Communities that Care impacts their life. By the end of this year, Guiding Good Choices hopes to attract 180 program participants in Tooele County. Last year the program enrolled 104. The program is one of three funded by a $82,500-yearly grant. Berry estimates every dollar spent on Guiding Good Choices saves $6,187 in incarceration costs later on. "Prevention programs save about $7 over what intervention programs save, they're that much more cost effective," Berry said. The prevention of delinquent activities is a relatively new endeavor. Before the 1980s, scant research on delinquent treatment programs found not a single program showed benefits treating juveniles, says Hawkins. The drug boards, posters, drug information programs, evaluations, were not only found ineffective, but if anything, the evaluation showed that some kids exposed to drug prevention programs were more likely to use drugs in the coming years. Correcting those problems, socieal scientists began to use the same strageties as public health officials. Treating risk factors for cardiovascular health and other diseases, for example, can be more effective than trying to treat the disease after its onset. By making changes in risk areas & like reducing salt intake or exercising, people were able to prevent disease. So, Hawkins and other social scientists started looking for risk factors present in early child development that lead to using dugs, dropping out of school, juvenile crime, violent behavior, teenage pregnancy and sexual activity. Based on Hawkins research, Guiding Good Choices, teaches parents to clearly define acceptable behavior, keep tabs on their children, use loving discipline and stay consistent. "If more families were clear and explicit, monitored activities and [were] consistent and moderate in their discipline, their children were less likely to engage in problem behaviors like drug abuse, violence, and risky sexual behavior," Hawkins said. In addition to finding the important role parents play in their children's lives, the research points to areas where parents can have significant impact. For instance, whether parents drink alcohol themselves or not, they can help their children avoid dependency by encouraging them to delay drinking. Research has found youth who begin drinking before age 15 are two to three times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who wait until they're 19 to have alcohol. "So just gettting people to delay onset, to wait until they're older, is an important strategy," Hawkins said. Rewarding positive behavior decreases the likelihood youth will turn to bad behavior. One misconception, Hawkins said, is that parents lose their influence as children grow older. "[Some may think] we've done all we can and we just have to let go, and it turns out that is wrong," Hawkins said. "We have to let loose without letting go. "Teenagers will tell you their most important influence not to use drugs was their parents; their most important influence not to have sex was their parents," Hawkins said, emphasizing it's a matter of taking time. Hawkins children are currently both in their early to mid twenties. Over the years Hawkins said he's tried to maintain communication with his children. Hawkins said his son and the rest of their family had attended a parenting class years back. His son had agreed he would not drink without first telling his parents. At age 15, his son came into the kitchen and said, "Dad I want to start drinking." "So I tried all my arguments I know from science; early use, small body ratio, history of alcoholism & not convincing. So, I said to him look you're about to drive, working on getting your license, when you do you will have to pay [$500 - $ 1000 for your insurance premium.] Hawkins told his son if he waited until the legal age to drink, he would pay for his insurance. Hawkins son said now you're talking and agreed not to drink. "Some people will say maybe you bribed him, but the thing is he got through those next two years without drinking," Hawkins said. Hawkins recommends when expectation are set, the parents think through what they will do if the child feels they can't live according to a rule. In his son's case, Hawkins said, he wouldn't have been able to drive if he couldn't come up with the $500. If he had come up with the money, "I'll have a rule that says no drinking or driving for sure," Hawkins said. Hawkins believes parents need to practice parenting skills. That's why he believes workshops like Guiding Good Choices are important. "If we have a teenager we should go to a parenting class in order to learn the skills to be good parents," he said. "For all parents, the communities where this has been most institutionalized have been the communities were the leaders of the communities do this first." Hawkins has heard the argument that the only parents who'd come to a parenting class are those who don't need it. He doesn't believe that's true. The programs offered in Tooele are research tested to be effective. "There are a number of programs that are well intentioned and good ideas but not tested," Hawkins said. "Doing our best with our best ideas doesn't necessarily guarantee success. So what we're banking on and what we're encouraging Milo and communities like Tooele [to do, is get schools, churches, and every unit of society involved in creating strong homes, and encouraging parents to train.]" Another advantage of Guiding Good Choices is it allows parents to work together to combat peer pressure. For example, if all parents have the same rules, children can't inflict guilt with, "Bill's mom let's him do this," Hawkins said. - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine