KYW Newsradio’s Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
An important approach to helping with issues is to look at potential risk factors.
A very interesting study has found that adolescent girls who reach puberty early and have inadequate parental supervision tend to begin drinking alcohol earlier and binge-drink sooner than their peers.
This is a major issue because we know that early use of alcohol is associated with teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
This certainly does not mean that a teenager who develops early will face these issues, but it is important because parents need to know statistics and how that can be used to counsel children.