Underage Drinking is Down and Parental Awareness is Up.

October 22, 2009

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ParentsEmpowered.org kicks off year four with positive measurable results.

Salt Lake City, Oct. 19, 2009 – Utah state officials and ParentsEmpowered.org kick off the fourth year of the statewide underage drinking prevention campaign on Thurs., Oct. 22, at 10:30 a.m. in the Capitol Boardroom at the state capitol with news that in Utah, underage drinking is decreasing and parental awareness and involvement is on the rise.

SPEAKERS:

Sam Granato, Chairman, Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, conducting

Lt. Governor Greg Bell

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff

Senator Peter C. Knudson

Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore, Salt Lake Valley Conference of Mayors

State Representative Ron C. Bigelow

Dan Jones, Dan Jones & Associates

Senate President Michael G. Waddoups

Others present: President of MADD, Art Brown; Utah PTA President, Ilene Mecham; Deputy Director of the Utah DABC, John Freeman; Commissioner of Public Safety, Lance Davenport; Utah mayors and chiefs of police.

The growth and success of the campaign and prevention efforts is bolstered by results of the statewide SHARP (Student Health and Risk Prevention) survey, which has definitively measured a reduction in underage drinking.

Two findings for teens stand out:

1.     Statewide averages for underage drinking are down across all grade levels for lifetime use, 30-day use and binge drinking.

2.     Of all the reasons not to drink while underage, teens report that parents who clearly disapprove of alcohol is by far the most persuasive.

An average four percent reduction across the 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades (and extrapolated for the 7th, 9th, and 11th), equates to roughly:

• 11, 260 fewer Utah children reporting ever trying alcohol in their lifetimes.
• 5,520 fewer having used alcohol in the past 30 days in the last two years.
• 2,600 fewer underage binge/heavy drinkers in Utah than two years ago.

The campaign's impact on Utah parents is no less dramatic, as illustrated by these results:

• As reported in the June 2009 Dan Jones & Associates Utah Underage Drinking Campaign Survey, 65 percent of parents generally agree their child could be exposed to alcohol. This is significant since many Utah parents often erroneously believe their children are insulated from the dangers of underage drinking because of their upbringing and their children don't need parents' help to stay alcohol-free.
• 57 percent of parents had set or reviewed clear rules about no underage drinking a minimum of two to three times over the past three months.
• 91 percent generally agree that monitoring their children's activities, especially when unsupervised, could prevent him/her from using alcohol. However, when asked if parents would limit the time their child spends unsupervised with other children, only 36 percent said it was very likely. Nonetheless, this does reflect a 16 percent increase from last year, indicating the gap between parental beliefs and intentions to act is slowly being bridged.

Underage drinking is a statewide problem that requires the entire state to join in the solution. The goal of ParentsEmpowered.org is to educate families and communities about the dangers and lifelong implications of underage drinking and provide them with skills and resources to help eliminate the likelihood their children will drink.