Parents key to children’s drinking
A survey of teenage drinking patterns has revealed that parents have a strong impact on children’s behaviour with alcohol.
Youths are twice as likely to have been drunk several times if they have seen their parents inebriated.
The odds of a teenager having ever had an alcoholic drink are also greater if their parents do not know where they are on a Saturday night, or if they are allowed to watch 18-rated films unsupervised.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation survey of 5,700 children found that one in four 13 to 14-year-olds have been drunk more than once, compared with just over half of children (52 per cent) who are 15-16.