mind over matter

Mothers Against Dangerous Decisions are gonna love this one: new research suggests that parental involvement leads to less boozing, toking and sexing for college freshmen.

The study, conducted at Brigham Young University (appropriate!), found that students who talk regularly with their fathers were less likely to do drugs or engage in risky sexual behaviors. When students kept in touch with their mothers, they were less likely to drink alcohol. Those who were reportedly tight with their moms engaged in less risky behavior overall. No word on the relative effect on Rock and Roll. 

“For parents, the fact that closeness plays a strong role is a message to not be overbearing,” Walker said. “Having a close relationship promotes the child wanting to open up and share what’s going on rather than the parent having to intrusively solicit the information from the child.” Walker and her colleagues agree that delaying adulthood results in an extension of parents’ period of service to their children.

It seems that tab-keeping parents delay independence for their 18-year-olds, but in a good way. Sounds like a win-win-win situation to me: parents keep in close touch with their teenager, so said teenager engages in fewer don’t-tell-Mama behaviors. But then again, maybe this just has something to do with good parents teaching their children right vs. wrong from the start?