By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album
Reviewed by Heidi Radunovich, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida
This post is in honor of Alcohol Awareness Month.
Do you remember your very first sip of alcohol? While I can’t say I recall mine to the last detail, I do know that it was at home, with my parents, and that it was either beer or wine. Like many moms and dads, I think my parents thought that allowing us a taste of alcohol at a certain age (I was probably in my mid-teens) made the whole thing seem like less of a big deal.
Do “Sips” Demystify?
I know lots of parents today who’ve taken the same attitude towards alcohol with their kids, allowing an occasional curiosity “sip” or “taste,” even with quite young children. Many consider this a more European way of managing alcohol (since drinking ages are lower there, yet there is less dysfunctional binge drinking–at least in some nations). But what effect do these childhood sips really have? Are we cutting back on the “forbidden fruit” allure of alcohol, or could we be sending the message that underage drinking is fine by us?
Surveys of Youth
In fact, at least one previous study has suggested that when parents permit early sipping and tasting, kids are more likely to start drinking “for real” at a troublingly young age. Following up on these findings, researchers writing in The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs recently followed about 550 young Rhode Island middle-schoolers over a three-year period.
Many Had “Sipped” Early On
The students were regularly asked if they had ever sipped or tasted alcohol, and also if they had ever consumed a full drink, been drunk, or had three or more drinks on one occasion. By sixth grade, about 30% said they had already had a sip of alcohol, with average age of their first taste being about seven. Most had been given the alcohol by their parents, usually at home, and often on a special occasion.
“Sippers” More Likely To Start Drinking Early
By ninth grade, about 11% of these young people had had a full drink. Concerningly, about 4% had either been drunk or had had more than three drinks at a time. And here’s a startling number: a full quarter of childhood alcohol “sippers” had consumed a whole drink by 9th grade, compared to only about 6% of nonsippers. Sippers were also more likely to report having been drunk, and having drunk heavily, by 9th grade. They were more likely to have smoked cigarettes and used drugs as well.
Even when researchers took parental alcohol use (including history of alcoholism) and the young people’s personalities (such as how impulsive they tended to be) into account, these associations stayed strong.
Sipping Won’t Help, May Hurt
This study was limited to one group of youth in one area of the country, and relied on tween and teen self-report, which might not be accurate. However, it is also not the first to connect childhood “sipping” and “tasting” with an earlier start to drinking. While parents who provide early tastes of alcohol generally mean well, it seems that children and teens may not benefit from this parental behavior.
(Photo credit: Pints of Beer by Simon Cocks. CC BY 2.0. Cropped.)
Further Reading:
Make a Difference: Talk to Your Child About Alcohol
Talking with Your Kids About Alcohol Use
References:
Jackson, K. M., Barnett, M. P., Colby, S. M., & Rogers, M. L. (2015). The Prospective Association Between Sipping Alcohol by the Sixth Grade and Later Substance Use. The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 76(2), 212-221.