A new study from Brigham Young University indicates that children still need the influence of their parents after they leave home to attend college.

The study, conducted by family scientist, Laura Walker,  found that parents’ knowledge or awareness of what’s going on in their child’s life at college is associated with fewer risky behaviors such as:

Specifically, students who said their fathers were in the loop had a lower likelihood of doing drugs or engaging in risky sexual behaviors. When mothers were in the know, students were less likely to drink alcohol.

The protective effect of mothers’ awareness was more pronounced when the students also felt close to their mom. Under those circumstances, the researchers found that students were less likely to be involved in any of the three risk behavior categories studied: drugs, alcohol and risky sexual activity.

“For parents, the fact that closeness plays a strong role is a message to not be overbearing,” Walker said. “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.”

The study’s findings show that the relationships between parents and children continue to be important during the transition to adulthood.

The study involved 200 undergraduate students ages 18 to 25 from two mid-Atlantic colleges, a Midwestern university and a West Coast university.

Why This May Be Important To You:  Your role as a parent never stops. Even when children are old enough and mature often to leave home, parents still can have a positive influence.  Binge drinking and other risky behaviors occur on college campuses everyday. Knowing that parents do have an influence on their children, even in this early adulthood stage of life, is encouraging - as long as parents excercise that influence.

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