He's heard all the reasons parents think it's a waste of time to talk to their teenagers about sex and alcohol, and he's heard all the reasons teenagers would be happy to avoid such conversations with their parents. Parents, talk to your teenagers, especially about issues like sex and alcohol. It's definitely worth it.
Parents do make a difference.
Some might say it's an obvious truth. But, says Jaccard, too many parents don't believe it, or they don't know the best ways to talk with their teenagers. And even in his field, says Jaccard, he's had to overcome the view that parents have little effect on adolescents. Many years ago when I first started looking at prevention approaches to teenage pregnancies, I did a thorough review of the literature on the topic. I did a critique of that research and found it methodologically and conceptually weak.