Children and teenagers of any age who sip or taste alcohol with their parents’ permission are more likely to engage in risky drinking in young adulthood. That was the finding of a new study my colleagues and I published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
In the study, we examined questionnaires filled out annually between 2009 and 2018 by 387 adolescents starting at age 11 and an accompanying parent. Topics included history of child and parent alcohol use, beliefs about alcohol and rules about alcohol in the home. The questionnaires also asked adolescents if they ever drank alcohol with their parents’ permission, even just a few sips – and if yes, at what age they first did so.
