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The Week in Silly Studies: Don’t tell your kids about your drug use

A new study is showing kids are like sponges and have views similar to their parents when it comes to drug use.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign asked 561 students in grades six to eight about what their parents told them about cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana.

They found when parents told their kids they experimented — as about 80 per cent of parents did — the children are more likely to have positive views of these substances.

"Parents may want to reconsider whether they should talk to their kids about times when they used substances in the past and not volunteer such information," said lead researcher Jennifer A. Kim, in a statement.

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This holds true even if the parents tell a negative story about their experience(s).

"The more often the parents talked about regret over their own use, the bad things that happened, and that they'd never use it again, the students were more likely to report pro-substance-use beliefs," Kam told LiveScience. The kids generally tend to think "if my parents did it, it's not that bad."

Previous research has shown talking to kids about your experiences deters them from doing the same, but this study shows the opposite.

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The study of Latino and white kids published in the journal Human Communication Research found if parents didn't disclose drug use and delivered a strong anti-drug message, the children were more likely to be against the substances. The researchers warn this may have implications into their adolescent years.

The study suggests parents should talk to their children about the harm caused by these substances, how to avoid them, and tell stories about people who have gotten into trouble. In other words, for the most part, parents should lie to their kids.

(Reuters photo)

The week in silly studies is a feature that appears each Tuesday.
It is not intended to mock real science.

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