tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/teenage-drinking-25455/articlesTeenage drinking – The Conversation2018-10-03T10:32:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039822018-10-03T10:32:26Z2018-10-03T10:32:26ZHow should we judge people for their past moral failings?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239018/original/file-20181002-101576-bfdjtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The #MeToo movement and more recent allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have posed questions about past conduct.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Supreme-Court-Kavanaugh-MeToo/d404cf1712bc48da99b0251790de864f/5/0">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/kavanaugh-sexual-assault-allegation-dle/index.html">recent allegations</a> of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have further divided the nation. Among the questions the case raises are some important ethical ones. </p>
<p>Not least among them is the question of moral responsibility for actions long since passed. Particularly in light of the #MeToo movement, which has frequently involved the unearthing of decades old wrongdoing, this question has become a pressing one.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lp2AS3oAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1">As a philosopher</a>, I believe this ethical conundrum <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11098-012-9976-6">involves two issues</a>: one, the question of moral responsibility for an action at the time it occurred. And two, moral responsibility in the present time, for actions of the past. <a href="http://earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1690book2_4.pdf">Most</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Doing_Deserving.html?id=EEl4KgAACAAJ">philosophers</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Essay_on_Moral_Responsibility.html?id=-zvXAAAAMAAJ">seem</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20009933?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">to</a> <a href="http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/9780262014090.001.0001/upso-9780262014090-chapter-7">think</a> that the two cannot be separated. In other words, moral responsibility for an action, once committed, is set in stone.</p>
<p>I argue that there are reasons to think that moral responsibility can actually change over time – but only under certain conditions.</p>
<h2>Locke on personal identity</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239022/original/file-20181002-101588-1s7ydcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Portrait of John Locke.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/63794459@N07/6282628216">Skara kommun/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>There is an implicit agreement among philosophers that moral responsibility can’t change over time because they think it is a matter of one’s “personal identity.” The 17th-century British philosopher <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/">John Locke</a> was the first to explicitly raise this question. He asked: What makes an individual at one time the very same person as an individual at another time? Is this because both share the same soul, or the same body, or is it something else? </p>
<p>Not only is this, as philosopher <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/KORPI">Carsten Korfmacher</a> notes, <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/person-i/">“literally a question of life and death</a>,” but Locke also thought that personal identity was the key to moral responsibility over time. <a href="http://earlymoderntexts.com/authors/locke">As he wrote,</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Personal identity is the basis for all the right and justice of reward and punishment.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Locke believed that individuals deserve blame for a crime committed in the past simply because they are the same person that committed the past crime. From this perspective, Kavanaugh the 53-year-old would be responsible for any of the alleged actions that he committed as a young adult. </p>
<h2>Problems with Locke’s view</h2>
<p>Locke argued that being the same person over time was not a matter of having the same soul or having the same body. It was instead a matter of having the same consciousness over time, which he analyzed in terms of memory. </p>
<p>Thus, in Locke’s view, individuals are responsible for a past wrong act <a href="https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/should-people-be-punished-for-crimes-they-cant-remember-committing-what-john-locke-would-say-about-vernon-madison-auid-1050?access=ALL">so long as they can remember committing it</a>. </p>
<p>While there is clearly something appealing about the idea that memory ties us to the past, it is hard to believe that a person could get off the hook just by forgetting a criminal act. Indeed, <a href="http://jaapl.org/content/7/3/219">some research suggests that violent crime actually induces memory loss</a>.</p>
<p>But the problems with Locke’s view run deeper than this. The chief one is that it doesn’t take into consideration other changes in one’s psychological makeup. For example, many of us are inclined to think that the remorseful don’t deserve as much blame for their past wrongs as those who express no regret. But if Locke’s view were true, then remorse wouldn’t be relevant. </p>
<p>The remorseful would still deserve just as much blame for their past crimes because they remain identical with their former selves. </p>
<h2>Responsibility and change</h2>
<p>Of late, <a href="https://www.pdcnet.org/harvardreview/content/harvardreview_2012_0018_0001_0109_0132">some philosophers</a> are beginning to question the assumption that responsibility for actions in the past is just a question of personal identity. <a href="https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/departments/philosophy/people/david-shoemaker">David Shoemaker</a>, for example, argues that responsibility doesn’t require identity. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/KHOIBF-2">a forthcoming paper</a> in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-american-philosophical-association">Journal of the American Philosophical Association</a>, my coauthor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oHU097gAAAAJ&hl=en">Benjamin Matheson</a> and I argue that the fact that one has committed a wrong action in the past isn’t enough to guarantee responsibility in the present. Instead, this depends on whether or not the person has changed in morally important ways. </p>
<p>Philosophers generally agree that people deserve blame for an action <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/blame/#WheBlaApp">only if the action was performed with a certain state of mind</a>: say, an intention to knowingly commit a crime.</p>
<p>My coauthor and I argue that deserving blame in the present for an action in the past depends on whether those same states of mind persist in that person. For example, does the person still have the beliefs, intentions and personality traits that led to the past act in the first place? </p>
<p>If so, then the person hasn’t changed in relevant ways and will continue to deserve blame for the past action. But a person who has changed may not be deserving of blame over time. The reformed murderer Red, played by Morgan Freeman, in the 1994 film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/">“The Shawshank Redemption,”</a> is one of my favorite examples. After decades in the Shawshank Penitentiary, Red the old man hardly resembles the teenager that committed the murder. </p>
<p>If this is right, then figuring out whether a person deserves blame for a past action is more complex than simply determining if that individual did, in fact, commit the past action. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239020/original/file-20181002-101576-1vd0qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Brett Kavanaugh giving his opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Supreme-Court-Kavanaugh/6145486a413648efa4c278453d907898/3/1">Saul Loeb/Pool Image via AP</a></span>
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<p>In the case of Brett Kavanaugh, some commentators have, in effect, argued that his recent Senate testimony displayed the persisting character of an <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/brett-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-hearing-teenager.html">“aggressive, entitled teen,”</a> although there are those <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/09/30/graham_explains_anger_at_kavanaugh_hearing_this_was_about_delaying_the_nomination.html">who disagree</a>. </p>
<p>What I argue is that when confronted with the issue of moral responsibility for actions long since passed, we need to not only consider the nature of the past transgression but also how far and how deeply the individual has changed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Khoury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether the sins of our past stay with us forever has become a pertinent question of our time. A philosopher argues we don’t need to carry our past burdens – although there are some moral conditions.Andrew Khoury, Instructor of Philosophy, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/808922017-07-20T01:57:22Z2017-07-20T01:57:22ZThree ways to help your teenage kids develop a healthier relationship with alcohol<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178560/original/file-20170718-19023-1xl6c6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parents play an important role in when their teenage children start drinking and their drinking patterns as they grow.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/633035360?size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lauren, a 15 year old school student, goes to a party at a friend’s house where the parents have supplied alcohol. She drinks too much and vomits in the car on the way home. </p>
<p>While this type of story may be common, it’s not inevitable. Our <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461699/">new research</a> suggests parents have more of a positive influence on their teenagers’ relationship with alcohol than they realise.</p>
<p>What parents say, how they behave and the messages they send to their teenagers can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4108600/">help delay</a> when their teenage kids start drinking, which is critical if they are to avoid the harmful and life-long effects of alcohol on the developing brain.</p>
<p>Parental influences also set the path to better <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15585043">drinking patterns (and reduced rates of alcohol dependence)</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11775078">as their teenage kids</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16818840">grow up</a>.</p>
<h2>Why are we so concerned about teenage drinking?</h2>
<p>Teenagers’ brains are <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945212001839">still developing</a> key pathways for memory, learning, judgement and impulse control. So, damage from alcohol misuse at this critical time in development can lead to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960066/">cognitive issues</a> like memory problems and learning difficulties.</p>
<p>This is one reason Australian guidelines <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/ds10-alcohol.pdf">recommend</a> people under 18 avoid drinking alcohol altogether and delay starting for as long as possible.</p>
<h2>How big a problem is it?</h2>
<p>Out-of-control teenage parties often make the <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/sunshine-coast-teen-parties-spiral-out-of-control-20161007-grx20r.html">news headlines</a>, so it’s easy to think teenage drinking is a growing problem. </p>
<p>But two <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/alcohol-and-other-drugs/data-sources/ndshs-2016/key-findings/">national</a> <a href="http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/E9E2B337CF94143CCA25804B0005BEAA/$File/National-report_ASSAD_2014.pdf">surveys</a> have confirmed drinking rates among school students (aged 12-17) and young adults (aged 18-24) are declining.</p>
<p>So, while young people may think drinking is the norm, <a href="http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/E9E2B337CF94143CCA25804B0005BEAA/$File/National-report_ASSAD_2014.pdf">this is not the case</a>, especially for those under the age of 15 where fewer than 15% report having drunk alcohol in the past month and 8% in the past week.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, alcohol contributes to four of the top five leading causes of death in 15-24 year olds, including <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129552757">suicide</a>, <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129552762">traffic accidents</a>, <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129552765">accidental poisoning</a> and <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129552768">assault</a>. Alcohol in this age group can also lead to <a href="http://www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.15288/jsa.1998.59.71">sexual risk-taking</a> and is often associated with <a href="http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/E9E2B337CF94143CCA25804B0005BEAA/$File/National-report_ASSAD_2014.pdf">trying smoking or taking illicit drugs</a>.</p>
<p>It’s easy to think our efforts as parents to foster healthier drinking habits in our teenage children is futile. But evidence shows exactly how parents can make a difference. Here are three things you can do to help your teenage kids develop a healthier relationship with alcohol.</p>
<h2>1. Limit availability of alcohol</h2>
<p>Many parents <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22763230?dopt=Abstract">believe</a> supplying their children with alcohol in the safe environment of their home teaches them to drink responsibly.</p>
<p>In fact, an <a href="http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/E9E2B337CF94143CCA25804B0005BEAA/$File/National-report_ASSAD_2014.pdf">Australian survey found</a> parents were the most common source of alcohol with 38% of 12-17 year olds who had drunk in the past week indicating their parents gave them their last drink.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, parental supply – whether deliberate or if teenagers drink their parent’s supply behind their back – is associated with <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4472-8">heavier teen drinking</a>. And <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20105420">a study from the Netherlands</a> found the more adolescents drank at home, the more they were likely to drink outside of the home, which predicted future problem drinking.</p>
<p>Our study <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461699/">also found</a> if adolescents thought they could buy alcohol easily, they were more likely to drink regularly. And the more spending money 16-17 year olds had, the more likely they were to drink.</p>
<p>The weight of the evidence is now clear. Allowing children to drink underage and supplying them with alcohol, including at parties, even under the supervision of a parent, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4108600/">is not recommended</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Set boundaries and clear expectations</h2>
<p>Parents have a vital role to play in setting boundaries and clear expectations about drinking alcohol. Discuss alcohol with your kids and the fact <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/alcohol-and-other-drugs/data-sources/ndshs-2016/key-findings/">not everyone drinks</a>, even though it might seem like they do.</p>
<p>Talk about upcoming activities, including parties, and discuss expectations about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Talk to other parents and let them know your expectations as it’s important to set <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25343647">clear social norms and expectations</a>.</p>
<p>Our study <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461699/">found</a> adolescents who thought their parents would disapprove of them drinking alcohol were much less likely to drink. This was the case across the whole age spectrum of 12-17 years. </p>
<h2>3. Be a good role model</h2>
<p>Alcohol is the <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_types/drugs_alcohol/drug_types/alcohol.html">most widely</a> used recreational drug in Australia and most adult drinking (80%) is done <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129549848">in the home</a>. So, we also need to think about our own drinking in front of our children, however uncomfortable the prospect.</p>
<p>Parents are <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00048674.2010.501759">important role models</a> for kids when it comes to alcohol. Setting a good example by limiting drinking in front of kids where possible, not making alcohol and drinking a key focal point, having alcohol-free events and cutting back on your own binge drinking are all significant.</p>
<p>This is important because kids who live in families where parents drink on a regular basis around their children <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00048674.2010.501759">are more likely</a> to drink more heavily themselves and start at an earlier age.</p>
<h2>Parents are not the only influence, but are still important</h2>
<p>While parents can play a vital role in their children’s relationship with alcohol, they are not the only factor to influence teenage drinking. </p>
<p>Alcohol is <a href="http://fare.org.au/policy/pricing-taxation/">more affordable </a> in Australia than it has been in the past 30 years, and the number of premises selling alcohol has <a href="http://nceta.flinders.edu.au/files/8713/5226/7677/EN463_LLReport_Exec_summary.pdf">increased substantially</a> in the past 15 years. Throw <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/excessive-alcohol-advertising-in-sport-is-out-of-bounds-20160522-gp0x0m.html">advertising</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-22/doctors-call-for-ban-on-alcohol-sponsorship-of-cricket/8198706">sports sponsorship</a> into the mix and we have some very strong messages that drinking alcohol is the norm. </p>
<p>Yet, the evidence shows parents can make significant and substantial difference in their teenage children’s relationship with alcohol, particularly in not giving them alcohol before they turn 18 and helping them set good behavioural patterns around alcohol now and for later life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Bowden receives funding from SA Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research centre Robin Room heads receives funding from federal government research bodies, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, VicHealth, Australian state government commissions, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. </span></em></p>Teenagers pick up cues about drinking from you and your family. Here’s how you can help them develop a healthier relationship with alcohol.Jacqueline Bowden, PhD candidate, School of Psychology, University of Adelaide and Manager, Population Health Research, South Australian Health & Medical Research InstituteRobin Room, Professor and Director, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/556792016-03-04T06:15:08Z2016-03-04T06:15:08ZWhy do some 11-year-olds drink alcohol? (Hint: it’s to do with their parents)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113612/original/image-20160302-25872-dqalmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daisy Daisy/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1pCBqTZ">Official guidelines</a> from the Department of Health are clear: children aged 15 or under should not drink alcohol. But they do. While the number of young people who say they drink alcohol <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31452735">has recently fallen</a>, the teenage years are still the time most of us have our first experience of alcohol. And some children are drinking before they become teenagers. </p>
<p>Now in <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/16/169">new research</a> we published in BMC Public Health we have found that 11-year-olds whose parents drink heavily are almost twice as likely to drink themselves than if parents are non-drinkers – and particularly if their mother rather than their father is a heavy or regular binge drinker.</p>
<p>Many parents fear that absolute prohibition will lead to secret drinking and a loss of trust in the relationship with their child. It would appear to be common sense that a child drinking a small amount of watered-down wine with a family meal may develop quite different later adolescent behaviours to a child swigging vodka with friends in a bus shelter. Common sense it might be, but there has been little robust research around this.</p>
<h2>Drinking habits</h2>
<p>Our study made use of the detailed and rich data available in the <a href="http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/page.aspx?sitesectionid=851">Millennium Cohort Study</a>, which has followed the lives of nearly 20,000 children born between 2000 and 2002. At age 11, just under 14% of children in the cohort said they drank alcohol. When asked whether their friends drank, 78% of children said “no”. </p>
<p>Their parents were also grouped into three categories based on their own reported drinking frequency: non-drinkers, light to moderate drinkers and heavy or binge drinkers. Around 20% of mums and 15% of dads were non-drinkers, 60% of mums and dads were light or moderate drinkers, while about a quarter of dads and just over 20% of mums were heavy or binge drinkers. </p>
<p>We found that for non-drinking mums, 8% of 11-year-olds drank. For light to moderate drinkers this rose to 12% and for heavy drinkers, it rose again to 16% of 11-year-olds. So overall, compared to children whose mums did not drink, children whose mums were light or moderate drinkers had a 60% increased risk of drinking at age 11, while those whose mums were heavy or binge drinkers had an 80% increased risk. A father’s drinking appeared to have about half as much impact, regardless of whether he was a light to moderate or heavy/binge drinker. </p>
<p>Children who said their friends drank were also more than four times as likely to drink themselves as those children who had friends who didn’t drink.</p>
<h2>Home life and perceptions of alcohol</h2>
<p>The children were also asked about other risky behaviours such as smoking or truanting and what they felt about their family. </p>
<p>Predictably, those children who reported being happy at home were less likely to drink than those who reported frequent family battles. Where there were low levels of parental supervision, combined with a dad who drank heavily, the risk of the 11-year-old child drinking was, again, higher.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113613/original/image-20160302-25879-1a7f93g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The wrong idea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gamzova Olga/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>A child’s view about the harms of alcohol also seemed to be an important factor. The more dangerous a child thought alcohol to be, the less likely they were to drink. Children who did not see drinking alcohol as a risky activity – and who also had a mum who drank heavily – were much more likely to be drinking alcohol at age 11.</p>
<p>It is not possible for our study to judge whether parents’ level of alcohol consumption actually causes their 11-year-old to start drinking, but our findings show us a strong association between 11-year-olds’ drinking and their friends’ and mothers’ behaviour. Family relationships, perceptions of risk and expectations regarding alcohol are also important, as are some more general characteristics of the family unit such as socioeconomic circumstances.</p>
<p>The fact that there are multiple likely causes of early drinking means that measures to counter these risks need to be aimed at a number of different aspects of a child’s life. One size will not fit all.</p>
<p>The vast majority of children at the age of 11 are yet to explore alcohol. But children certainly need to have a better understanding of the risks involved in drinking. Schools and parents are clearly well placed to provide the best advice, information and guidance to children of this age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Kelly receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Some children drink alcohol. This study of 11-year-olds looked at how parents’ drinking might influence behaviour.Yvonne Kelly, Professor of Lifecourse Epidemiology, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.