Events helping teenagers have fun without alcohol
Alcohol and teenagers – ‘Tis the season, but does it have to be?
With summer festive celebrations, beach parties and barbeques, this can be a time of year that parents feel pressure to provide alcohol to their teenagers.
In New Zealand it’s not uncommon for young people to have drunk alcohol at least once before their 18th birthday.
Alcohol is widely used and often expected at social events, especially at this time of year.
Alongside this there is a growing body of evidence illustrating the risk that alcohol can have to the development of the teenage brain.
Caught in between social pressure and scientific evidence, are parents.
Parents who contributed to focus groups that were run in three communities in Nelson and Tasman in July, talked about the pressure they feel to give alcohol to their teenagers.
Rosey Duncan of Health Action Trust and a member of the project group YARPS which aims to help reduce the social supply of alcohol to under 18-year-olds, said parents sometimes had a sense that it was inevitable that their teenagers would drink alcohol before the legal purchase age of 18 years.
To address that sense of inevitability of youth drinking, some professional youth workers in our region are providing top quality entertainment for youth that is alcohol-free.
The Summer Sounds ‘‘music on the beach from talented locals’’ and the Tasman Skate Park Tour will together provide a total of 11 alcohol-free events during January.
‘‘It’s great that our local councils are making it easier for parents by providing opportunities for young people to plan to have a good time without alcohol’’, Duncan said.