Pre-Teens and Alcohol – Safety Starts at Home

The latest stir in news concerning raising your children is highlighted by a recent New York Times article, penned by Tara Parker-Pope. The NY Times piece was echoed in other recent articles in both paper publications and on the internet. According to this article, quoting a recent study, children in the 8 to 10 year age bracket are sipping alcohol.

According to the information presented, two out of five American children between the ages of 8 and 10 have already taken sips of alcohol. The same study states that one in three mothers and one half of the fathers of these children were unaware that their offspring had done so.

This survey was done with a random sample of 452 children from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, aged 8 to 10, and was conducted by telephone over several years. The children were questioned separately from their parents. Reportedly nearly 40 percent of children in the 8 to 10 year bracket have sipped or tasted alcohol. Only 6 percent of the children questioned admitted to actually having a drink of alcohol according to John E. Donovan, an associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh.

The questions on alcohol use also queried the children on their opinions of their parent’s behavior and beliefs about alcohol. The questions also revealed that most of the sampling was done in a family atmosphere or was connected to religious services. The children seldom experimented with alcohol with friends or when alone. The highest number of children who had sipped alcohol came from families where the parents drink. It was determined however, that the higher incidence of sampling was not because the parents had offered the children alcohol, but was related to the incidence of seeing the parents drink and the availability of alcohol.

Researchers are not discounting the outside influences of beer commercials, alcohol ads and TV characters seen drinking, usually without any negative consequences such as fights, car crashes and unintended sexual experiences.

Most previous research on alcohol use among under age drinkers was focused on older children, middle school, or high school students, participating in heavier drinking than just a taste or sip. The previous surveys had asked when a child had taken ‘more than a few sips’ and this excluded children of younger ages who had only sampled.

The study also concluded that sipping was not frequent and most of the survey group had sipped only once. Boys and girls were equally as likely to have sampled, and white children were twice as likely as African-Americans to have sipped. Whether the household was a traditional two-parent or single parent household seemed to have no bearing on the frequency of the action. The study also indicated that children in this age group who had sipped had no more behavioral problems than those who had not.

According to Robert A. Zucker, Ph.D., director of The Addiction Research Center at the University of Michigan Medical School, the results should be no surprise. He states that the numbers, at first glance, may be surprising, but if you reflect on it, the findings including the fact that most of the sipping and tastes are done at home make sense.

Zucker comments “early encounter with alcohol in young children is largely an opportunistic experience, related to what happens in the family, such as drinking at family dinners, or at family celebrations such as weddings, barbecues, etc, and the fact that the parents themselves are drinkers. Thus, young children’s sipping/tasting of alcohol reflects parental modeling of alcohol use and increased opportunities to try alcohol in the home rather than deliberate family socialization of alcohol use.”

Paul Dillon from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia believes the figures indicated by the American research may be higher in Australia and says they demonstrate how prevalent alcohol is in our culture. “You only have to look at the coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Everywhere you looked people had a drink in their hand.” Mr. Dillon said. He believes that this is reinforcing the whole idea that being an adult and having fun means you have to have alcohol.

Does that mean that sippers will become frequent users and abusers of alcohol? That is not clearly shown at this time, but the children in this research who are now 15 – 17 years of age are being studied at intervals to see what consequence develop that could be associated with their early alcohol experimentation.

Internet comments from individuals, who admitted to having been sippers, concerning the results of the study, almost conclusively believed that their ‘sipping’ whether with or without their parents knowledge, removed some of the ‘adult mystery’ from drinking. The conclusion from this group was that in their own and family experiences, sipping did not promote excessive drinking as the family members aged.

What does the study say? That alcohol education should begin at home at an early age. Children are just as anxious to try alcohol as they are to learn to drive. Without proper education, drinking can be just as deadly as driving. Talk to your children early.