Parents’ Alcohol Use Influences Teen Drinking Patterns: Study

A new study finds parents’ alcohol consumption patterns influence how much their teens drink. Researchers found teens who parents drink at least five days a month or who binge drink are significantly more likely to drink themselves compared with teens whose parents don’t drink or binge drink.

Teens whose parents binge drink had a four times greater chance of drinking alcohol themselves compared to those whose parents did not binge drink, the study found. “This study provides more evidence that binge drinking is not only harmful to the person drinking alcohol but also to others around them,” senior study author Marissa Esser told HealthDay.

“This study is further evidence of the critical role parents play in young people’s substance use,” said Robyn Oster, a senior research associate at Partnership to End Addiction. “It adds additional support to a large body of research showing that parental substance use is strongly associated with children’s substance use. These findings also highlight the fact that far too many adolescents are growing up in homes where frequent alcohol use is the norm.”