If you have a history of using drugs back in the day, you may want to keep that information to yourself.
At least according to one study that revealed how sharing past drug use with children might actually encourage them to use drugs themselves.
The topic of drug-use is inevitable and will eventually have to be addressed by parents, but sometimes parents think that sharing their own past experiences with drugs and being upfront about their history might help send an anti-drug message.
But according to the study published in the journal Human Communication Research, that is not the case.
In fact, the findings revealed that children who did not have parents release information regarding their drug use history had an increased likelihood of displaying an anti-drug mentality.
"Parents may want to reconsider whether they should talk to their kids about times when they used substances in the past and not volunteer such information," said Jennifer A. Kam, one of the authors.
"Of course, it is important to remember this study is one of the first to examine the associations between parents' references to their own past substance use and their adolescent children's subsequent perceptions and behaviors."
Kam and fellow study author Ashley V. Middleton analyzed data from 253 Latinos and 308 European-American students who were in grades ranging from sixth to eighth.
The subjects were surveyed based on their conversations with their parents on topics like alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana.
The results showed that the children who said their parents told them about their past drug use, even when that experience ended with bad consequences, were less likely to display an anti-drug mentality.
Kam and Middleton suggest that parents talk to their kids about the negative consequences associated with using drugs, but warn against including themselves in the conversation.
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