# Parties and curfews

**What curfew and party rules should our teen have?**

How you handle going out: unsupervised parties, curfews, check-in rules, and what happens if they need a ride home.

In short: Parents choose between 4 main approaches: No unsupervised parties, fixed curfew; Adults present, age-graded curfew; Check-ins and a no-questions ride home; No curfew. Evidence: evidence leans one way. Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational. Best settled: teen.

- Area: The teen years
- Evidence: Evidence leans one way
- Best settled: Teen
- First published: 2026-10-03
- Last updated: 2026-10-05
- Page: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/topics/the-teen-years--parties-and-curfews

## Parties and curfews: what are the options?

1. **No unsupervised parties, fixed curfew**: The teen attends only supervised parties and must be home by a set time.
2. **Adults present, age-graded curfew**: An adult must be present, and the curfew gets later with age.
3. **Check-ins and a no-questions ride home**: The teen checks in, and can call for a ride home with no lecture.
4. **No curfew**: The teen has no set time to be home.

## Parties and curfews: what does the evidence say?

**Evidence leans one way.** Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 571 studies and about two million participants found a small-to-moderate link between parental monitoring and control and less adolescent substance use (r = -0.16), strongest when parents' knowledge came from the teen telling them and weakest for parents' own questioning. The classic Swedish study of 703 14-year-olds likewise found that parents learn most from what teens choose to disclose, and that tracking and surveillance added little. That favors rules plus an open line of communication over checking up, though the associations run both ways. Specific rules for parties and curfews, and local liability for allowing underage drinking, were not researched here

Sources:

- [Addictive behaviors meta-analysis, PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40390334/)
- [Stattin & Kerr, 2000](https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ620380)

## What else is worth knowing?

A curfew is a time the teen must be home. Many families pair it with check-ins and an offer of a ride home without questions. The aim is safety without pushing the teen to hide things.

## Questions to ask each other

- What are our rules about parties and where our teen is?
- Would we offer a ride with no questions asked?
- What time is a fair curfew and why?

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General information, not medical advice. Two parents can each answer this and compare: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/explore?cat=the-teen-years&topic=the-teen-years--parties-and-curfews