PARENTS BEHAVIOR CAN INFLUENCE TEENAGERS DRINKING

Parents' behavior

 'Can influence teen drinking'

       Children who see their parents drunk are twice as likely to regularly get drunk themselves, a survey of young teenagers has suggested. Poor parental supervision also raises the likelihood of teenage drinking, said the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The Ipsos MORI survey found the behaviour of friends is also a powerful factor in predicting drinking habits. The more time teenagers spend with friends, the more likely they are to drink alcohol, it suggested.

        In a survey of 5,700 children aged 13 to 16, carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, researchers found one in five claimed to have been drunk by the time they were 14. By the age of 16, half of those questioned said they had been drunk. But the study also looked at what influences excessive teen drinking - and the habits of parents seem to be particularly powerful.

      The odds of a teenager getting drunk repeatedly is twice as great if they have seen their parents under the influence, even if only a few times. And the authors say that parental supervision is also important - if parents don't know where their children are on a Saturday night, or let them watch 18 certificate films unsupervised, they are more likely to have had an alcoholic drink. Both what parents say, and how they behave, have a strong impact on their teenagers' drinking, drinking regularly, and drinking to excess” Teenagers' friends also have a significant impact on drinking behaviour.

The odds of a teenager drinking to excess more than double if they spend more than two evenings a week with friends. Spending every evening with friends multiplies the odds of excessive drinking more than four times.Pamela Bremner from Ipsos MORI, the lead author of the report, said: "For the first time in the UK, this study ranks what most influences young people's drinking behaviour.  "It found that the behaviour of friends and family is the most common influential factor in determining how likely and how often a young person will drink alcohol."

                                                                                             Prof. John Kurakar

Click to plA mother and daughter from Bury on the impact alcohol But there is conflicting evidence on how to introduce young people to alcohol - leaving parents with some difficult questions unanswered.