Children given wine at dinner are ‘binge’ risk

Study warns parents of perils

‘Parents should think twice’

MOST parents will admit to letting their child take a sip of wine or beer at the dinner table – after a little bit of nagging.

But researchers are advising them to think twice after a study showed that children who are allowed to try alcoholic beverages are more likely to grow up to be binge drinkers.

The risk of harmful drinking behaviour was higher in those who had been given a sip by their parents, compared to teenagers who were not offered any at all.

And those who were given alcohol by their parents were also at a higher risk of drinking more, and more often, than if they had been given alcohol by friends.

The study, carried out by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Australia, surveyed more than 1,900 teenagers and their parents from the start of secondary school.

The researchers followed them for seven years and surveyed them every 12 months. Study leader Alexandra Aiken said that while allowing a ‘sip’ was often seen as a harm-reduction strategy, it actually had the opposite effect.

‘Parental supply of sips in one year was associated with increased risk of binge drinking and alcoholrelated harms a year later, compared with no supply,’ she said. Of those who were given sips of alcohol by their parents, 69% reported binge drinking by the age of 18.

However, this was reduced to 42% for children who were not given sips of alcohol at all.

Of those who tried alcohol from ‘another supply’, for example from friends, 64% reported subsequent binge drinking. And those given full drinks – rather than just sips – from both their parents and friends had a 96.7% chance of subsequent binge drinking.

‘Our research shows that there is a link between parents supplying their children with alcohol and the risk of later developing alcohol problems,’ Ms Aiken added. ‘Parents should think twice before allowing their underage kids to try alcohol.’