When it comes to teenagers and parents and sex and alcohol, you could say that James Jaccard has heard it all. 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. But after exhaustively analyzing communications between parents and teenagers in thousands of families, Jaccard, a University at Albany social psychologist, has developed a few key suggestions and scientific evidence to back them up. Parents, talk to your teenagers, especially about issues like sex and alcohol. It s definitely worth it.
Parents do make a difference.
They can have an impact on their kids, says Jaccard, I think researchers are coming to realize just how important parents are. Some might say it s an obvious truth. 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 found there were very few programs that were parent-based and the people who were doing research in the area were concluding that parents have little effect on adolescents, he recounts.