A survey of alcohol, drug and tobacco use among Delaware County teens raised red flags for officials, but they cautioned that the small number of teens who answered the questions may have skewed the accuracy of the numbers.
State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Karen M. Carpenter-Palumbo released the state's largest-ever youth prevention survey.
Delaware County's results were startling, with almost 90 percent of 11th- and 12th-graders indicating that they had consumed alcohol, 70 percent of them claiming to have had a drink in the last 30 days and more than 40 percent indicating that they had been binge drinking within the past two weeks.
Walton-area teens expressed agreement with the study's results. High school student Tiler Hernandez of Walton, 14, called the study's conclusions "about right," adding that he knows that a lot of students "do stuff."
Fourteen-year-old Jacob Wacha, also a Walton High School student, also agreed. "Yeah, the numbers are pretty much right. Most of the kids who are drinking are older, but I think kids are really avoiding smoking and I don't think they are doing drugs."
Homeschooled students Lydia and Kylie Dewing of Walton, ages 14 and 16 respectively, also found the study's results plausible.
"I could believe the alcohol part. I know a few kids that drink and don't think it's bad," Lydia said. Kylie said she knows "kids who drink a little and don't think it's wrong," but added that she doesn't know anyone who uses drugs or believes drug use is acceptable.
Delaware County was one of 28 counties statewide that participated in the survey. In many categories, including past 30-day use of any illicit drug, local percentages outdistanced urban counties including Bronx, Queens, New York, Nassau and Westchester.
Delaware's percentages were
also well above state averages in almost
all of the drug, alcohol and tobacco categories.
Statewide, more than 92,000 teenagers in grades 7 to 12 participated in the OASAS 2008 Youth Development Survey, but only two of the 13 Delaware County school districts took part, with just 362 local students answering the survey.
David Ramsey, Delaware County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council executive director, said the results were "kind of a wake-up call, but I don't think it's fair to categorize all students based on these numbers. With just two schools involved, it may or may not be representative of the whole county.
"I don't think it's bad science _ it clearly reinforced what the Council has known _ drinking is a long standing cultural issue in Delaware County," Ramsey said.
The survey also looked at risk factors that can foster alcohol and drug use, and protective factors that can help prevent teens from drinking, smoking and doing drugs.
Ramsey said one statistic that stood out was the local students' perception that parents have a favorable attitude toward alcohol use. Among 11th- and 12th-grade students, about 68 percent of Delaware County teens indicated that parents approve alcohol use, compared to a national percentage of 45 percent and a state average of 42 percent.
"There is a favorable parental attitude locally," Ramsey said. "Alcohol is considered benign, and it's very difficult to change the cultural norm."
Terri Korba, Stamford Central School guidance counselor, said she felt the survey results were not reliable because there were not enough students involved.
"I think it's a bit skewed," Korba said. "But it is kind of a red flag, and I will follow up on it. Any tool you have is worth using, but we already do a lot of drug prevention, and if you have a good rapport with your students, you are already going to know these things _ you don't need a piece of paper to tell you."
Mike MacDonald, Walton Central School middle school principal, said Walton was asked to participate, but opted out because the survey included seventh- and eighth-grade students.
"Middle school students have a tendency to sensationalize," MacDonald said. "As a result, we thought it was something we didn't want to get involved with, because we didn't trust the results. That is always a problem when you start working with surveys."
MacDonald acknowledged that drug and alcohol use is a problem.
"It's not to say that there isn't a concern and there are always more resources needed," MacDonald said. "If the survey results can bring resources into the area, I'm all in favor of it."
Walton Middle School student Michaela Tompkins, 12, of Walton, agreed with the study's claims. "I see a lot of kids smoking and drinking alcohol, but the biggest problem is mostly alcohol," she said.
Margaretville Central School Superintendent Tony Albanese said he is new to his district and can't accurately determine if the percentages reflect the student's attitudes and actions, but added that he supports any positive results that come out of it.
"I am interested in any conversation about our youth," Albanese said. "I would be glad to do what I could to support any effort to benefit youth."
Sidney Central School Superintendent Sandra Cooper said she has regular conversations with the Sidney village police about drug and alcohol problems, and has been active in forming the Sidney Focus on Youth Initiative to provide opportunities for youths outside of school.
Cooper said Sidney didn't take part in this survey, but did participate in another survey last year, and she is awaiting those results to gauge the attitudes and actions of her students.
Bonnie Hamilton, Delaware County Public Health director, said the results of a Delaware County youth risk behavior survey of nine middle schools and eight high schools done by the Delaware County Rural Healthcare Alliance in partnership with the Bassett Research Institute will be released in about two weeks.
Hamilton said she suspected the OASAS survey results may be flawed because it was done using such a small sample of students.
"The correlations may be correct, but the percentages may be off," Hamilton said.
Aletha Martinez, Rural Three for Tobacco Free Communities project director, said she questioned the validity of the survey results.
"I couldn't tell if this is a truly representative sample," Martinez said. "It wasn't a large enough number of students and the survey questions weren't clear to me."
The survey indicated that the use of tobacco products was much higher in Delaware County than in other counties, with about 26 percent of 11th- and 12th-grade students indicating they smoke, compared to 13 percent statewide, and 18 percent reporting they chew tobacco, compared with 4 percent statewide.
Martinez said rural communities tend to have higher rates of tobacco use, but she didn't know if the difference was as dramatic as the survey indicated.
Delaware County District Attorney Richard Northrup said he doesn't believe that drug and alcohol use are any different locally than in other parts of the state.
"We get a lot of information on alcohol and drug use history from probation department reports on defendants," Northrup said. "Some of them do admit to using at a young age, but you find that everywhere."
Kelly Sanfilippo, Delaware County treatment court coordinator, deals with the defendants who agree to work on controlling their alcohol and drug additions to avoid facing a prison sentence.
Sanfilippo said the most startling realization about drug and alcohol users is that their social and intellectual development stopped at the time they started using.
"We find that they are very immature, they don't have the skills that ordinary members of the community have," Sanfilippo said. "We can't believe the silly things they do, but then we have to remember that they are really like 13-year-olds even though we may be dealing with a 25-year-old. We have to teach them things like time management and scheduling, and support them in the changes they need to make."
Ramsey said a major area of federal, state and university research is concentrated on the study of alcohol and other addictive drugs, and how they affect society and individuals.
Ramsey said Linda Spears, professor of psychology at Binghamton University, is one of the nation's leading researchers on the effects of alcohol on the adolescent brain. He said Spears has found that alcohol acts like a sledgehammer on the developing brain, while other illegal mood-altering drugs, like cocaine and heroin, interfere with brain development but in a narrower way.
"The brain research will absolutely lead you to the conclusion that alcohol is one drug you don't want your children involved with," Ramsey said.
Ramsey said the most important thing that could come out of the survey is to use the information to begin building coalitions to develop solutions.
"The best response is to allow the data from the survey to lead you where you need to go _ a deliberate effective response," Ramsey said. "Take the risk factors and pick two or three that you have a chance of addressing."
Ramsey said parental involvement is critical to make changes in the risk and protective factors.
"This is about bringing folks along to make them understand the problems and solutions," Ramsey said. "Parents are very hard to access because they are so busy, but we have to persuade people that even though they are busy, everyone has got to come to the table.
"We have to let teens know that the underage drinking party at the quarry is not going to be tolerated, but that is going to require additional funding for the sheriff's department so they have the time and manpower to deal with the situation," he added.
"Ironically, parents don't believe their opinion carries much importance with their teenagers, but it does and it has to be articulated at the kitchen table and repeated over and over," Ramsey said. "Kids are not going to ask parents for limits and boundaries, but they will listen."
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Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.
