The Alcohol Education Trust - Parent Newsletter

Spring Term, February 2019, Ed 34

We hope you’ve enjoyed a wonderful half term, the longer days and first sign of Spring!

As ever we’ve been very busy here at The Alcohol Education Trust. As well as across the whole of the North, we can now support parents and carers with talks in schools, youth and sports clubs across Scotland as well as the Midlands, South and South West – please do let your school or club know and put us in touch, or ask them to contact us!

It’s a very relaxed and supportive chat through what to expect of teenagers, how to keep communicating, how to manage teen pressure and teenage parties. Kathryn looks after the North via kathyrn@alcoholeducationtrust.org. Karen the Midlands, South and West via karen@alcoholeducationtrust.org and Brian in Scotland via brian@alcoholeducationtrust.org - you can find out a lot online too around the law, units and guidelines, drink spiking and more via https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/parent-area/

Once in a while we include a little round up of research and recent findings – really to show you that all our approaches are based in science and the most recent findings! Scroll down to learn more!

Plans are coming together for AET's exciting new office space – will you help us move from a garden garage to a sustainable office café and community space?

2019 is the 10th Anniversary of The Alcohol Education Trust and we have been given the wonderful opportunity to build a subsidised café, community/training space and office on The Great Field at Poundbury, Dorset - an area with 33% social housing which will have a Parkour area for teenagers as well as an all weather sports pitch, an outside gym and one mile walking/running track. Work is due to start on the building in Autumn this year and we are hoping it will be ready by Spring 2020!

This will provide us with an invaluable training space for schools and organisations across the South West as well as a bespoke office for our staff. The AET will be providing public toilets for those using the park and, to ensure that the building is revenue generating, a café forms part of the cricket style pavilion building. The café will be family and young people orientated and will offer youth employment and training opportunities.

We are launching a crowd funding appeal in early March and will really appreciate you giving just a little – the more engagement and support we have, the more likely we are to get match funding – up to £10,000 worth! We will send out more information shortly – but please spread the word!!!

Awards news

We are delighted to have been selected as a finalist in the 2019 Education Resources Awards in the Secondary Resource including ICT category. Our resources were highly commended in the 2017 awards. We will keep you posted... the winner of the category will be announced on the 22nd March!

Research Round-up

Evidence continues to mount on the effect of early and heavy drinking on teenagers long term life chances

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6717179/Binge-drinking-rewires-teenagers-brain-leaving-risk-depression.html 

More on the associations between Anxiety, Depression, and Alcohol Use in Adolescent Girls – a confusing picture

Depression, anxiety, and alcohol misuse predict adverse social, academic, and emotional outcomes, and their relations to one another increase during adolescence-particularly in girls. This study examined reciprocal associations between anxiety severity and alcohol use, as well as between depression severity and alcohol use, in adolescent girls.

There were 2,100 female participants (57.1% Black, 42.9% White) assessed annually between ages 13 and 17. Girls self-reported depression severity, anxiety severity, and frequency of alcohol use.

Sufferers of higher depression modestly increased the likelihood of subsequent alcohol use from ages 13 to 17. However, girls who drank at that age suffered slightly less from depression severity at ages 14 and 16; associations were nonsignificant in other lagged associations. Anxiety severity and alcohol use were not consistently associated. Levels of drinking in this study weren’t well defined into light or binge, which would have shown clearer findings.

Source: Longitudinal Reciprocal Associations Between Anxiety, Depression, and Alcohol Use in Adolescent Girls. Schleider JL, Ye F, Wang F, Hipwell AE, Chung T, Sartor CE. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2018 Nov 25. doi: 10.1111/acer.13913.

Keep youngsters off the energy drinks!

Data from the Camden Youth Development Study, a longitudinal, community-based study of school students, were used looking at self-reporting of frequency of energy drink, coffee, and alcohol consumption, as well as sensation-seeking, perceived peer and best friend alcohol use, alcohol expectancies, and parental monitoring, were used.

Results indicated that both energy drink and coffee consumption predicted later alcohol consumption, even after adjusting for other risk factors for alcohol consumption. Parental monitoring was a significant moderator of this link, such that youth who consumed energy drinks and reported low parental monitoring were particularly at risk for later alcohol consumption.

These findings indicate that the link between earlier caffeine consumption and later alcohol consumption is not simply due to the co-occurrence of caffeine consumption with other risk factors for alcohol use. In addition, risk associated with early energy drink consumption appears to be particularly pronounced for youth in families characterized by low parental monitoring.

Source: Investigating associations between caffeinated beverage consumption and later alcohol consumption among early adolescents. Marmorstein NR. Addict Behav. 2018 Nov 23;90:362-368. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.11.033.

Mental health of children and young people in England, 2017: Behaviours, lifestyles and identities

Click on the below to see the results of a survey on the mental health of children and young people in England.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2017/2017#summary

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-for-england/2017

Impact of Christmas Party analysed

Benson’s  has taken an in-depth look at the 24-hour aftermath of a typical Christmas party, analysing the toll alcohol and sleep deprivation takes on the body. Read more via https://www.bensonsforbeds.co.uk/blog/christmas-party-affects-body-24-hours/  

Fears over pre-teens being exposed to inappropriate adverts online, as regulators step up controls

https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdy142

Parent area of AET website

Don't forget, the parent area of our website https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/parent-area/   is always there to provide you with a huge range of advice and tips on keeping your teenagers safe around alcohol and includes the following:

* Ways to delay teenage drinking

* Parent Fact File

* What to do if things go wrong

* Alcohol and the law

* Festivals and parties

You can also download our 'Talking to Kids about Alcohol' guide for parents via https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ParentGuide.pdf  for loads more really useful information

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