The biggest influence on a teenager’s drinking is their boyfriend or girlfriend’s friends according to a study by the American Sociological Association.
The study found that the odds of an adolescent binge drinking if their partner’s friends engage in heavy drinking doubles when compared to if just their friends or significant other drink heavily.
“Dating someone whose friends are big drinkers is more likely to cause an adolescent to engage in dangerous drinking behaviors than are the drinking habits of the adolescent’s own friends or romantic partner,” said Derek Kreager, lead author of the study and an associate professor of crime, law, and justice at Pennsylvania State University. “This applies to both binge drinking and drinking frequency.”
Read more at American Sociological Association (ASA)