Booze help backfires

PARENTS who buy alcohol for their teenagers in the hope of curbing their drinking are doing more harm than good.

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s study of 2000 Australian children aged 12 to 13 over a six-year period has found parents who may think they’re helping their offspring by supplying them with booze and supervising consumption, are putting them at greater risk of binge drinking.

Data to be presented today at the NDARC Annual Symposium reveals the “protective effects of parental supply” is gone by 17 or 18. At around that age, children who received alcohol from their parents were more likely to be binge drinking and showing symptoms of dependence.

“These results contrast with the results we obtained when the children were 15-year-olds, when parental supply was associated with drinking but not with drinking to excess,” researcher Richard Mattick said. “The passage of time did not see moderation but rather an increase in drinking problems.”