Ashland parents are being asked to complete a survey to determine their concerns and knowledge about drug and alcohol use by adolescents, and to close the sometimes significant gap between the perceptions of adults and the realities of teenagers.
The survey asks parents to rate their agreement with such statements as, "My child has never used alcohol," "Most underage drinking is experimentation and just part of growing up," and "What I say will have little influence on whether or not my child uses drugs or alcohol." Parents also list which activities they believe their child has done in the past month, such as smoked marijuana, used someone else's prescription drugs, had more than one drink, used cocaine, or smoked cigarettes.
"I suspect that the survey will show that what the kids know and what the parents know are two totally different things," said Robert Moro, project director for the Ashland Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Initiative.
Ashland's middle- and high-school students already completed an extensive survey about their health and risk behaviors as part of a survey administered last year to 23,000 students in 18 communities by the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation. The results of the survey were released this fall, though they were not broken down by town.
Each community can choose whether to release the town-specific results. Moro does plan to share Ashland's results, but only in conjunction with results of the parent survey.
In the MetroWest survey, 66.5 percent of high school respondents reported drinking alcohol in their lifetime, and 42.2 percent reported drinking in the past 30 days. The smoking percentages were lower, with 35.3 percent of high school students reporting they had smoked in their lifetime, and 33.2 percent reporting they had smoked marijuana. Among high school students, 11 percent reported illegal use of prescription drugs.
"Ashland is not any better or any worse than any other town, but all towns in Massachusetts and the country have problems," Moro said. Many teens feel "immortal, and that nothing can happen to them," he added.
And Ashland teens, to both their benefit and detriment, may not have received evidence to disprove this myth of invincibility, Moro said, noting the town has been fortunate to not yet mourn the death of a teenager due to substance abuse.
Moro, a social worker, is in Ashland under a three-year, $200,000 grant that nine other area communities have also received from the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation. The grants focus on preventing adolescent substance abuse, intervening with youth, and improving access to treatment for those who need it, said Martin Cohen, the foundation's president.
In Ashland, a group that includes Moro, police officers, a selectman, school employees, and a town-employed social worker are joining forces to accomplish these goals, starting with the parent survey.
The parent survey is designed to measure adult awareness of the issues raised in the student survey, and also taps into parents' attitudes about their own roles. For instance, parents choose scenarios in which they might call another child's parents, or in which they'd want to hear from other parents.
They also consider whether letting their teen-age children and or their children's friends drink at home will "prevent them from getting hurt or in trouble," or if it "sends the wrong message."
Once the survey results are analyzed, Moro plans to hold follow-up community forums. Some will be small gatherings in families' homes, said Selectman Arthur Shapiro, who helped write the survey.
The goal is not intended as preaching or therapy, but simply to open parents' eyes to youth behavior in Ashland and help develop priorities for next steps, Shapiro said. These steps may mean standardized curriculum about substance abuse, as well as events outside school.
"The old saying is, it takes a village to raise a child. And it does, it takes a community," Police Chief Scott Rohmer said of the collaboration underway.
Parents can access the survey at the school district's website, central.ashland.k12.ma.us, or pick up copies at the town library. Moro hopes to close the survey in the middle of next month and present findings from both the parent and youth surveys in late January or early February.
