Quick Clips with Dr. Kilmer: 02. Alcohol Messaging–How Powerful Is It Really?

In this series we talk with Dr. Jason Kilmer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He specializes in the development, implementation, and evaluation of substance use prevention and intervention efforts on college campuses and among 18–25 year olds.   

While Dr. Kilmer focuses on college campuses, his insights are universal and particularly helpful for parents with teenagers of any age. Share these recordings with your parenting peers as you all navigate this exciting time in human development (ages 14–25) and work to help your kids navigate away from alcohol and other drugs.

This podcast is brought to you by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The views expressed here are not necessarily those of SAMHSA or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For questions or comments about this podcast, please contact WhatParentsAreSaying@gmail.com. 

Transcript

Quick Clips with Dr. Kilmer: 02. Alcohol Messaging–How Powerful Is It Really?

[00:00:00] Debbie: Welcome to Quick Clips with Dr. Kilmer. Today we're talking about alcohol messaging and how powerful is it really. 

[00:00:11] Dr. Kilmer: I largely work with college students and occasionally I have presented to high school students and middle school students. I have so much respect for people that work with high school students and middle school students, because to me that's a lot more intimidating than working with college students, to be honest with you.

[00:00:25] But you know, when we work with college students, we'll ask. What are some of the ways you've heard alcohol affects people positively in social situations? We'll also ask them, what are some of the ways alcohol affects people in not so good ways in social situations to this day? One of the longest lists I've ever heard of how alcohol affects people positively in social situations came from a group of eighth graders.

[00:00:47] I was Stu. And I asked them, how do you know all this? Where do you get this information? They said everything from TV commercials to what they've seen in movies and TV shows, but they also pointed out older siblings as well as parents and guardians. And so I do think the opportunity, when you're having your conversation, what is it that people see portrayed in movies and TV shows, like how we help.

[00:01:13] Kids digest to those portrayals, how we help kids digest what they see in the media. That's a role that parents, caregivers, and guardians really can play. And it might sound innocent when someone tells a story of this funny thing that happened their sophomore year, but if the takeaway is funny, things happen when you drink.

[00:01:31] The kids hear that. And so I really do think that, you know, alcohol does a lot of stuff, the buzz that's real. Motor coordination impact, that's real impact on reaction time, real decision making and judgment impairment. All of those are legitimate pharmacological effects of alcohol. So it's not all in your head, but the social or interpersonal things are the social or interpersonal things come much, much more from our beliefs are expectancies where we are and who we're with than the cup that's in our hand.

[00:02:01] And it's amazing that even though we're around this research all the time, I mean, we continue to hear. Even people assign like expectancy specific statements about certain types of alcohol. Like I hear people say, well, I can't drink tequila because tequila makes me do crazy stuff. There's no in quotes, crazy ingredient in tequila.

[00:02:18] That's an expectancy. When someone says, that person over there is really cute. I wish I could talk to them, but I'm shy. If I drink two more, then I can. That's an expectancy. And so I do think that as we see some of the ways in which alcohol is portrayed, the opportunity to make sense of that. If you're all watching a fam a movie together as a family or as a group, there's the chance to to to talk about, you know, what some of that might be real and which, what parts of that might not be so real and.

[00:02:47] Debbie: That's fantastic. 

[00:02:48] Dr. Kilmer: It really is a fascinating line of, of research that's really opened up some eyes about what alcohol really does do and what it doesn't do. 

[00:02:54] Debbie: Thank you so much for those insights.