Straight Dope: Prep your kids for college

It’s that time of year: College applications have been filed, last-chance SAT subject tests are coming up, and the dreaded FAFSA financial aid applications will be tackled soon. High school seniors and their parents are completing preparations for the beginning of college careers, but they might not be ready for one extra-curricular activity common on most college campuses.
Free from the structure of high school and observant parents, most college students will have opportunities to use alcohol and other drugs at will. Freedom, peer pressure, availability and poor judgment may all combine in a potentially dangerous mix. And alcohol is the most volatile part of that combination.
Annual surveys of substance use show that college students are more likely to use alcohol than their non-student peers. About 20 percent of college students met clinical criteria for an alcohol use disorder in the most recent data available, a higher rate than non-students, who were more likely to use other drugs, as well as nicotine.
Explanations for these differences between “town and gown” behaviors include higher levels of stress for college students and some differences in sociocultural backgrounds, including income levels.
In any event, what is clear is that most incoming students are ill-prepared to deal with college substance use, and, perhaps, some institutions are not adequately screening or intervening with incoming students who already have substance problems.
Research on the degree of risk teenagers associate with various substances also reveals important variables. Although about 70 percent of teenagers think smoking a pack or two of cigarettes each day presents a great risk, only 40 percent see binge drinking (five drinks or more in one sitting for males; four for females) as very risky.
We know that regular binge drinkers are more likely to develop alcohol dependence, and consuming several drinks in one sitting poses other dangers, such as drinking and driving and risky sexual behavior. But the majority of young people just don’t see it that way.
So a certain degree of responsibility obviously falls to parents and, in loco parentis, college administrators and counselors. While most colleges and universities have alcohol education and counseling programs, a recent effort by several university presidents belies their commitment to dealing with this problem. These administrators, because they felt that a drinking age of 21 only encouraged alcohol misuse by minors, have lobbied for a reduction in the drinking age to 18. The logic here is that if it is allowed, fewer young people will feel motivated to rebel and drink when they aren’t allowed to.
Any parent understands this logic, but the evidence is clear that raising the legal age for drinking from 18 to 21 was a judicious and effective change many years ago. So we are back to the parents.
But what to do? How best to prepare your 17- or 18-year-old for the alcohol-fueled environment of college?
• Start with honesty and reality.
If you drink, acknowledge that alcohol in moderation is not necessarily harmful, and that is how you use it. Hopefully, you have modeled this moderation for many years, and your children have witnessed the appropriate use of alcohol.
If you do not drink, share with your children your reasons and values behind that decision. They will be confronted with opposing views from their college peers, and they should be prepared to wrestle with that.
• Be real. Your sons or daughters might well drink when they get to college, and they might drink to excess. Explain the very real dangers of alcohol misuse, including the danger of risky sexual behavior, drinking and driving, physical consequences that may affect their ability to perform in the classroom (the dreaded hangover), and disciplinary action by their university.
This doesn’t have to be scare tactics, just the facts, including the obvious: It is illegal to drink before they are of age.
• William Brigham, M.S.W., M.A., of Scotts Valley is administrator of the National Football League Program for Substances of Abuse and father of five daughters. Contact him at wc****@gm***.com.