Offering Alcohol to Your Adolescent Children Might Increase Risks for Problematic Drinking

Preventing excessive drinking in teenagers is important because adolescence and early adulthood are the peak years for onset of alcohol use disorder (AUD). To learn whether receiving sips of alcohol from parents (compared with whole drinks from parents or sips or whole drinks from other people) increases later risky drinking behavior, researchers conducted a survey study of 1910 Australian adolescents (mean baseline age, 13).

Participants and their parents were surveyed yearly for 7 years. Analyses examining alcohol exposure and five next-year drinking outcomes were adjusted for numerous factors, including quantity and frequency of parental alcohol consumption and familial alcohol problems. Among participants not receiving alcohol from other…