Sparked by an interest in the root cause of underage drinking and alcohol abuse amongst teens, Chelsea Lynn Jurman decided to conduct a study as part of the Intel Science Talent Search that would bring her one step closer to a realistic cause. 123 high school students where interviewed for the study, by way of survey, to see if any conclusive link could be drawn between the likeliness that a teenager is to drink and the perceptions that the parent imparted on the teenager. 17-year-old, Chelsea Lynn Jurman found that when parents shared personal accounts of underage drinking with their adolescent, the teenager usually perceived it as a kind of reinforcement and was more likely to also partake in underage drinking practices that could later lead to alcohol abuse. Adversely, the study also showed that teens who didn’t think that their parents engaged in underage drinking were less likely to engage in it themselves.
Aside from the shocking discovery that Chelsea Lynn Jurman made about parents’ influences on underage drinking, Jurman also found conclusive evidence that certain practices on the parent’s part helped deter their teen from underage drinking. Most importantly was the practice of supervision. Teens that were more supervised by parents were less likely to engage in underage drinking. Based on the conclusions of the study, Jurman would suggest that parents refrain from sharing underage drinking stories with their adolescents while also maintaining fair but firm supervision of their adolescent.