Two new studies suggest parents can play an important role in preventing teens from drinking, NPR reports. One study in the journal Prevention Science finds parents who set effective and strict alcohol-related rules, while maintaining a warm and supportive family environment, reduce the risk of binge drinking in their teens. In the second study in the same journal, children who participated in a five-month, home-based alcohol prevention program while they were in third grade were significantly less likely to drink when they were in seventh grade, compared with children who were not in the program. In the first study, researchers at Claremont Graduate University looked at data from a long-term study that followed more than 9,400 teens from 1994-1995 through 2008, when participants were in their 20s or early 30s. The teens’ parents were interviewed in the first year of the study. The researchers found teens were more likely to binge...

Almost half of parents whose child had unused prescription opioid painkillers left over from a surgery or illness keep the medication at home, a new poll finds. Parents who have a discussion with their child’s doctor about how to properly dispose of the medication are much more likely to do so, the poll found. Researchers from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, polled nearly 1,200 parents with at least one child ages 5 to 17. They found about one-third of parents said their children had received pain medication prescriptions, mostly for opioids such as oxycodone or hydrocodone, HealthDay reports.Only 8 percent of parents said they returned the unused medication to a pharmacy or doctor, while 30 percent disposed of the drugs in the trash or toilet, and 6 percent said other family members used the medication. Nine percent said they didn’t remember where the medications went. Only one-third...

A study that looks at why parents allow their teens to sip alcohol concludes they are more likely to permit drinking if they think their child’s friends drink, too. “Parents may be supplying sips of alcohol in response to believing their child will be exposed to unsupervised alcohol use with their peers. However, they may be wrong in their belief, and may be prematurely introducing their children to a behavior that may have marked risks,” researchers write in Pediatrics. About 60 percent of teens have tasted alcohol by age 13, according to AAP News. The researchers note sipping alcohol may be a stepping stone to additional drinking by underage teens. Parents are a major supplier of alcohol, they found. Drinking by minors is associated with delinquent behavior and poor health, they add. A study published last year found children who are allowed to sip alcohol are more likely to drink by...