PARENTS AND DRUG-EDUCATION - PARENTS CONCERNS, ATTITUDES AND NEEDS

Parents play a key role in their children's education and social devel opment and therefore can be very influential to their children's learn ing about drugs. Despite this there has been little research done to d ate that explores parents'; perceptions. This paper reports research f rom questionnaires, which sampled 947 parr!nts of 14-16-year-olds tele phone interviews of 60 of these responses and six focus groups of prim ary and secondary school parents. The issues explored included parents ' concerns, needs and knowledge of drugs issues in respect to their ch ildren as well as parents' perspective on drug education. The results show that parents are concerned about drugs in relation to their child ren, and report that drugs are easily available to young people and ve ry much part of today's youth culture. The study revealed that parents are largely misinformed about the drug situation and request accurate and up-to-date information. They are unaware of their children's scho ol drug policies and programmes and feel the need for easier access to relevant services. Parents rate drug education Its important and repo rt it should begin at late primary school age. Parents predominantly w ant their children to be taught the 'Just Say No' message. Finally, is sues of communication about drugs, between parent(s) and their child(r en), were raised. A number of implications of the results for drug edu cation are presented.