A new research study finds that teenagers who drink under adult supervision are more likely to develop problems with alcohol than their peers who don't drink alcohol until legally permitted.
"The study makes it clear that you shouldn't be drinking with your kids," said Barbara J. McMorris, the study's lead author and a senior research associate at the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota.
The study tracked 1,945 seventh graders for a three year period. Half of the teenagers were from Australia and the other half were from Washington State. The teenagers from Australia were more likely to be drinking with adult supervision by eighth grade. The Australian teenagers were also more likely to have had negative consequences from their alcohol consumption.
"I think the study says something pretty important," said Patrick Nolan, director of Youth-Nex: The University of Virginia Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. "Parents need to make it clear that it's not okay for kids to drink until they reach the legal drinking age - a line has to be drawn."
Despite this fact, many parents believe they are responsible and still allow their children to drink
alcohol.
"There are people I know who are very responsible parents in many ways who think that this is part of being a responsible parent," said Mary O'Connor, a psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor at the University of California - Los Angeles. O'Connor believes that many people still have conflicting feelings about alcohol despite the fact that it is a legal
substance.
"We know from both animal and human studies that alcohol affects brain development," O'Connor said. "The teenage brain is much more vulnerable to begin with and we now know that repeated drinking can lead to long term deficits in learning and memory.
