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>The study included 580 middle school students who ranged in age from 10 to 13. >They also described how often they felt lonely and how often they drank alcoho

• blovescoffee 3y ago
  It doesn't take that much alcohol to get a 13 year old drunk. And they likely took it from their parents, have older siblings/cousins/etc. or robbed a store. "Where are their parents?!" - not every child has great parents. Besides there are numerous ways imaginable for a teen to conceal that behavior.
  • snvzz 3y ago
    If I was unclear, this is culture shock to me (grew up in EU). The age at which my school peers were introduced to alcohol was in high school, 16-18 range, when everybody started going out at night. I do not remember anybody even joking about drinking alcohol before then.
    • Swizec 3y ago
      Grew up in EU. We thought it was edgy and cool to drink alcohol around 13/14. We couldn’t acquire serious quantities so not much drunkenness happened. We’d like share a beer between 10 people and think we’re soooo drunk
    • ginko 3y ago
      Grew up in EU as well(Austria). When around 13 we’d buy alcohol with the old “I’m getting it for my dad” excuse. (Obviously my dad needed some 4% alcoholic lemonade in the early afternoon) Cashiers didn’t really care. At least back in the 90s. Starting high school (~age 15, legal drinking age is 16) we’d go to bars to have a beer.
      • rcbdev 3y ago
        Growing up in Vienna (Austria) I can confirm that many bars existed to cater to middle schoolers and it was very easy buying alcohol (Whiskey, Beer etc.) at 13/14. Getting in with siblings' student IDs is still common as far as I can tell.
        • wink 3y ago
          German here who was 13 in the 90s - while I'd heard of several people (and friends of mine) who drank alcohol at 13, it was a lot more common at 15 (but mind you, we're allowed to legally drink beer with 16, so I don't consider drinking beer at 15 a big deal). All mostly middle class children who went on to go to uni, maybe the occasional outlier with a less than normal home situation. They did want to see government IDs in shops, but I guess that highly depends on the shop or your exact location.
        • snvzz 3y ago
          >many bars existed to cater to middle schoolers and it was very easy buying alcohol (Whiskey, Beer etc.) at 13/14. Definitely not legal. How come the owners aren't in jail? This is no joke, we are talking about children. Seems like serious levels of corruption.
          • mpol 3y ago
            The shops don't advertise that of course, so with what claim would you nail them? Here in the Netherlands, about 10 years ago, there was a new law that coffeeshops selling marihuana are not allowed within 250 meter from schools. That is a rule working the other way around.
          • rcbdev 3y ago
            Funnily enough, the notorious night club I was thinking of from my youth actually is closed now.
    • blovescoffee 3y ago
      Fair! That's "healthier."
      • snvzz 3y ago
        It would be best to not drink at all. But the older people start, the better. Ideally, as an adult, as kids are not responsible for themselves.
    • deleted 3y ago
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• Dalewyn 3y ago
  [flagged]
  • quantified 3y ago
    You can ask, but parents are drawn at random from the population of adults, so you need to expect just about anything.
  • JellyBeanThief 3y ago
    No. But try and define "proper" and you'll soon run into problems. My local rural high school is blowing up over transgender bathroom access, and there are some parents who are actively encouraging their children to call emergency services if they encounter anyone they think is transgender in a bathroom. From one perspective, this is instructing children not to be shy about protecting their safety. From another, it's abuse of emergency services and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. And there's an entire spectrum in between. I think this year there's gonna be a lot of unattractive and unathletic students labelled trans even if they identify with their sex assigned at birth.
• Aurornis 3y ago
  The section you quoted was about questions they asked the students: How lonely did they feel, how often did they drink alcohol. Gather 580 middle school students and you’ll find a subset of them engaging in shocking behavior. This can usually be traced back to a combination of disengaged parents and older siblings who are a bad influence. 13 year olds are teenagers and are plenty capable of stealing their parents’ alcohol if desired. The prevalence of these behaviors varies wildly from one demographic to another. I’ve been involved with schools with highly involved parents where a student even hearing rumors of one of their peers consuming alcohol would set in motion a chain of events where parents talked to each other and their kids about alcohol use and took steps to keep each other informed and lock their own alcohol away. Meanwhile I have extended family who teach in two different farming communities. It’s not uncommon for even middle schoolers to get caught with drugs or arrive at school under the influence of something. Not all of them, of course, but it’s a frequent enough occurrence that it’s not all that noteworthy when it happens again. The range of parenting styles and home environments across the United States is extreme. It can be unfamiliar to many who grew up in one bubble to hear about the vast differences that exist in other bubbles.
  • CMCDragonkai 3y ago
    It's interesting that there's a lack of morality or ethics or civics education in schools. As if schools don't teach people how people should act in a civilised society. Being unattractive or being unathletic should not subject someone to ridicule or unfair treatment. And those that are attractive or athletic should be given special attention in this regard.
    • hgsgm 3y ago
      Oh, we should tell people to be good; then they will stop being bad.
      • csw-001 3y ago
        I get that it’s not this simple - but my flippant response is that “with kids, yes!”… this is an essential part of being a parent or role model - tell kids how/why to be “good” , and largely they won’t be bad.
• 1MachineElf 3y ago
  I actually went to FAU where this study was performed, the high school 1 mile west of it, and the middle school 1 mile south of that. During my time at middle school, I knew 5 outcast kids who were regularly getting drunk and high at 12 years old. All had troubled families and/or divorced parents.
• dorkwood 3y ago
  Anecdotal, but I can remember receiving a survey like this at school when I was around the same age. They didn’t tell us what it was for. I had no idea who would be reading it. On a lot of the questions, I lied, and said I was doing things that I’d actually never done before, because I didn’t want to look like a square in front of my peers.
• fnordpiglet 3y ago
  I had no trouble getting alcohol and pot at 13. There were tons of places that sold to minors, and adults of questionable morality that would buy for kids for a cut of the purchase price. Kids would raid parents liquor cabinets. Older siblings would buy. But it’s not like most kids that age sit around drinking all day. You would occasionally happen into it and have a party with friends. My parents were present, but I just didn’t do it in front of them. That’s not that hard to figure out. I would “go to a friends house,” they would “go to my house,” and in reality we went to the lake and drank and smoked up. I don’t think this is a new phenomenon. We were doing it 35 years ago, and the oldsters I knew had done it too.
  • snvzz 3y ago
    >I had no trouble getting alcohol and pot at 13. There were tons of places that sold to minors, and adults of questionable morality that would buy for kids for a cut of the purchase price. Kids would raid parents liquor cabinets. Older siblings would buy. Wow. In contrast, it never crossed my mind to buy alcohol (or pot) at 13. It was not a thing in my environment, either. The mere idea of kids getting drunk is insanity from my perspective.