A website designed to help parents have difficult discussions about substance use with their college-age children Topics include impaired driving, living off campus, housing and roommates, celebrating their 21st birthday safely,
spring break, holidays and Halloween. The website was created by The Maryland Collaborative to Reduce College
Drinking and Related Problems.
Ages 18 to 25 are the peak developmental period for the onset of alcohol and other drug problems as well as
mental health disorders. Research tells us that the adolescent brain is not fully developed until the late 20’s and
that the “CEO” part of the brain (the regions responsible for planning and regulation of behavior) develops a lot
slower than the emotional centers of the brain. The result is that young adults in this age group tend to make
decisions based on their emotions more than sound logical reasoning. Parents can enhance their child’s rational
decision making. This website is intended to help in this regard. Organized by common situations that increase
the risk for high-risk drinking, like the
21st birthday,
spring break, and
housing and roommates, each page has a
section on why the topic is important and a little bit of the research related to that topic, followed by two sections
called “ Say this ” and “Not this.”
