U.K. Researchers: Safer to Let Kids Drink in Moderation than Enforce Abstinence

Parents who allow their 15- and 16-year-old children to occasionally drink alcohol under supervision may ultimately be protecting their kids better than those who strictly enforce abstinence, according to researchers at the Center for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K.

The Guardian reported Oct. 9 that researchers who surveyed about 10,000 youths found that “parents who allow children aged 15-16 years to drink may limit harm by restricting consumption to lower frequencies (e.g. no more than once a week) and under no circumstances permitting binge drinking.”

Researchers said that while there is “no safe level of alcohol consumption for 15- to 16-year-olds,” youths who drank in moderation and with parental approval were less likely to experience violence when drunk, engage in alcohol-related sexual behavior that they later regretted, and other negative outcomes.

“While abstinence removes risk of harms from personal alcohol consumption, its promotion may also push children into accessing drink outside family environments and contribute to higher risks of harm,” the study said. “Strategies to reduce alcohol-related harms in children should ensure bingeing is avoided entirely, address the excessively low cost of many alcohol products, and tackle the ease with which it can be accessed, especially outside of supervised environments.”

The research was published in the journal BMC Public Health.