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You are your child's #1 role model.

Parents are key for countering pro-alcohol messages that kids will hear elsewhere. You can model responsibility about alcohol through words and actions. Now is the time to set clear rules about alcohol. ​

 

BIPAS Alcohol gives parents the tools they need to commit to keeping children alcohol free through the teen years. This program helps you prepare children to resist media and peer influence and offers tools for setting up family rules and practices around alcohol.

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A note to parents: This program is for all families, regardless of whether parents drink alcohol.

alcoholfree
Why Alcohol-Free?
 
Early alcohol use before age 14:

  • Is the leading cause of death for children under 21 due to injury because of alcohol misuse (1)

  • Prevents healthy brain development in youth (2-4)

  • Increases risk for involvement in physical and sexual violence (5)

  • Leads to academic problems (6)

  • Can lead to mental health problems like depression and suicide (7-8)

  • Means adolescents are more likely to binge drink in their teens and to develop an alcohol use disorder later in life (9-10)

Why Middle School?​

 

  • ​Rates of alcohol use double as children enter middle school (11)

  • 25% of 8th graders and 50% of 10th graders have already tried alcohol (12)

  • Children take in information about alcohol years before they first drink (13)

  • Children’s first drink is often at home with parents who allow sips (14-15)

  • Small sips of alcohol leads to early binge drinking in the teen years (16)

  • The younger children are when they start drinking (including sips), the worse the consequences (17)

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What about parent alcohol use?

Whether or not you as a parent drink alcohol, this program is for you. It will help you learn about the benefits of keeping your child alcohol-free and give you practical solutions.

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Many adults drink. Some parents who drink are hesitant to talk to their children about alcohol for fear of feeling hypocritical (“Do as I say, not as I do”). However, there is a big difference between children and adults drinking: Underage drinking has unique risks and bigger consequences than responsible drinking as an adult.

BIPAS Alcohol will teach you:

  1. How to establish clear and consistent rules against drinking

  2. Skills to communicate with your children (and other adults around them) that you don't want them to drink

  3. How to restrict your children's access to alcohol and why it's important

  4. What it means to be a responsible role model to your children around alcohol

  5. How to support your children during their middle school transition

Hompage References

References

  1. Hingson, R. W., & Zha, W. (2009). Age of drinking onset, alcohol use disorders, frequent heavy drinking, and unintentionally injuring oneself and others after drinking. Pediatrics, 123(6), 1477–1484. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2008-2176

  2. Squeglia, L. M., Jacobus, J., & Tapert, S. F. (2009). The influence of substance use on adolescent brain development. Clinical EEG and neuroscience, 40(1), 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/155005940904000110

  3. Witt E. D. (2010). Research on alcohol and adolescent brain development: opportunities and future directions. Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.), 44(1), 119–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2009.08.011

  4. Petit, G., Maurage, P., Kornreich, C., Verbanck, P., & Campanella, S. (2014). Binge drinking in adolescents: a review of neurophysiological and neuroimaging research. Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire), 49(2), 198–206. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agt172

  5. Reyes, H. L., Foshee, V. A., Tharp, A. T., Ennett, S. T., & Bauer, D. J. (2015). Substance Use and Physical Dating Violence: The Role of Contextual Moderators. American journal of preventive medicine, 49(3), 467–475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.05.018

  6. National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking; Bonnie RJ, O'Connell ME, editors. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004. 2, Social, Health, and Economic Consequences of Underage Drinking.

  7. Hussong, A. M., Jones, D. J., Stein, G. L., Baucom, D. H., & Boeding, S. (2011). An internalizing pathway to alcohol use and disorder. Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 25(3), 390–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024519

  8. Windle, M. (1993). A retrospective measure of childhood behavior problems and its use in predicting adolescent problem behaviors. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 54(4), 422–431. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsa.1993.54.422

  9. Hingson, R. W., & Zha, W. (2009). Age of drinking onset, alcohol use disorders, frequent heavy drinking, and unintentionally injuring oneself and others after drinking. Pediatrics, 123(6), 1477–1484. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2008-2176

  10. National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking; Bonnie RJ, O'Connell ME, editors. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004. 2, Social, Health, and Economic Consequences of Underage Drinking.

  11. Donovan J. E. (2007). Really underage drinkers: the epidemiology of children's alcohol use in the United States. Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 8(3), 192–205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-007-0072-7

  12. Monitoring the 2020 Survey Results. 15 December 2020. National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

  13. Ennett S.T. et al (2004). Parent-Child Communication About Adolescent Tobacco and Alcohol Use: What Do Parents Say and Does It Affect Youth Behavior? Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(1), 48-62.

  14. Komro, K. A., Maldonado-Molina, M. M., Tobler, A. L., Bonds, J. R., & Muller, K. E. (2007). Effects of home access and availability of alcohol on young adolescents' alcohol use. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 102(10), 1597–1608. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.01941.x

  15. Wadolowski, M., Bruno, R., Aiken, A., Stone, C., Najman, J., Kypri, K., Slade, T., Hutchinson, D., McBride, N., & Mattick, R. P. (2015). Sipping, drinking, and early adolescent alcohol consumption: a cautionary note. Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 39(2), 350–354. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.12613

  16. Ennett S.T, Jackson C, Bowling J.M., and Dickinson D.M. (2013). Parental Socialization and Children’s Susceptibility to Alcohol Use Initiation. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74(5), 694-702.

  17. Warner, L. A., & White, H. R. (2003). Longitudinal effects of age at onset and first drinking situations on problem drinking. Substance use & misuse, 38(14), 1983–2016. https://doi.org/10.1081/ja-120025123

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