Important role for the school in information about alcohol, smoking, drugs and gaming.

Important role for the school in information about alcohol, smoking, drugs and gaming.

Alcohol, smoking, drugs and gaming. Sooner or later most parents deal with a child who discovers one or more of these or comes into contact with them. How do you handle this? What information, tips and tools do you need? And what role does the school play in all this? We researched this among the parents in the Landelijk Ouderpanel.

Important topic

Alcohol, smoking, drugs and gaming get your attention in parenting. More than half say they find these topics important or very important. Almost 50% think actively about the topic. Only 1% says they are not concerned with alcohol use, smoking, drug use and/or gaming. At this moment most parents focus mainly on gaming. In the future parents expect to pay more attention to alcohol use.

Education at school is important

Most parents think that parents and school both have a responsibility to inform children about substance use and gaming (82.1%), but most parents (62.6%) say the main responsibility lies with the parents. According to parents the school’s role is mainly to provide information, apply clear school rules and detect problems.

Punishments and contacts unclear

Fortunately most schools have rules and parents mostly agree with these rules. School rules are mainly about alcohol use at school parties, smoking on the school yard and drug possession at school. 17% have regular locker checks. However, many parents do not know which punishments children get (32.8%), students are not always punished (40.6%) and teachers do not always set a good example (34.4%). Alcohol and tobacco are also easy to get near the school and about a quarter of parents say this is true for drugs as well. More than half of parents know where to go at school with questions or problems. A large group of parents do not know this.

More attention to rule enforcement

Ouders & Onderwijs is involved in the National Prevention Agreement to tackle problematic alcohol use among students. We will therefore put the results about the school’s role on the agenda in various meetings. Our message? Education at school and school rules are important. Progress can still be made in clear enforcement of the rules and teachers setting a good example. We also find it important that parents always know where to go with questions about the topic.

Parents talk easily with their child

It is striking that almost all parents in the study talk with their child about alcohol, smoking, drugs and/or gaming. The conversation is mainly about the risks. Many parents also talk with their child about current topics shown on TV and about their child’s experiences. Most parents talk with their child when the child has questions. About two thirds of parents start the conversation after events around them or when they have heard something in the news or media. Most parents find it easy to talk with their child.

Enough information

Three quarters of parents have searched for information about alcohol, smoking, drugs or gaming. Mostly because they wanted to know more about the topic themselves (72.6%). Other reasons were that their child had come into contact with it (34.7%), they wanted to know how to talk with their child about the topic (32.6%) or a media event (30.5%).

Educational material by Trimbos

In the study parents could respond to educational material developed by the Trimbos Knowledge Base for schools. They were mainly positive about the information and the look of the materials. However, some criticism was given about the tone and parents sometimes missed practical tools. The materials will be adjusted. A nice cooperation between parents and Trimbos.

Landelijk Ouderpanel

More than 4300 fathers and mothers already share their opinion through big studies and short polls about education and parenting. Do you want to share your opinion too? Make your voice heard in politics? And think ahead about the information given to parents? Sign up for the Landelijk Ouderpanel and join the conversation about topics that matter to you as a parent.

About the study

In total 273 parents filled out the survey. About 28% of these parents have children younger than 14 years, about 26% have oldest child 14 or 15 years and 46% have oldest child 16 years or older. The results are not representative for the Dutch population: mainly highly educated parents and parents with a Dutch cultural background filled in the survey. Also read the full results report.

The Landelijk Ouderpanel is an initiative of Ouders & Onderwijs and Opvoedinformatie Nederland.