PROVO, Utah, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- College students who remain close to their parents are less likely to be involved with drugs, alcohol and risky sexual activity, a U.S. study found.
Laura Walker and Larry Nelson of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, found that parents' knowledge or awareness of what's going on in their child's life at college is associated with fewer risky behaviors.
The study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, found students who said their fathers were in the loop had a lower likelihood of doing drugs or engaging in risky sexual behaviors. Students who had mothers knowledgeable about their lives were less likely to drink alcohol.
The study involved 200 undergraduate students ages 18 to 25 from two mid-Atlantic colleges, a Midwestern university and a West Coast university.
"For parents, the fact that closeness plays a strong role is a message to not be overbearing," Walker said in a statement. "Having a close relationship promotes the child wanting to open up and share what's going on rather than the parent having to intrusively solicit the information from the child."
