Happy childhood may lower drink, drug risk among teens

New York, Jan 26 : If your teenage child has memories of a happy childhood, they are less likely to indulge in drinking or substance abuse and enjoy learning, a new study suggests.
The findings, published in the journal Addiction Research and Theory, indicated that positive attitudes towards the past, present and future put adolescents at lower risk of alcohol use, binge drinking and marijuana.
“Many teenagers also aren’t engaging with online learning during Covid-19 or have lower engagement levels,” said researcher John Mark Froiland from Purdue University in Indiana, US.
“But they are more likely to be enthusiastic learners and not use drink and drugs if teachers take time to build more positive relationships with them. They can help students see that everything they are learning is truly valuable. Parents have a role to play too,” Froiland added.
For the study, the team assessed 1,961 students at a high school and half (53 per cent) of the pupils included in the study were female.
The researchers looked at responses from pupils where they rated how nostalgic they were of their childhood, current happiness levels in life and how much they look forward to future happiness.