Give teens weekly ‘alcohol allowance’

PARENTS can help to keep their teenage children out of trouble by giving them a weekly allowance of alcohol, a British study found.

Teenagers who rely on obtaining their own supplies of cheap alcohol are much more likely to be involved in violence and other forms of bad behaviour, it is claimed.

Researchers conducted a drinking survey of almost 10,000 teenagers aged 15 to 16 in the north-west of England.

They found that almost 30% of the youngsters had experienced violence when drunk and 12.5% reported having sexual encounters they regretted as a result of drinking.

A total of 35.8% of the teenagers had drunk in public places such as parks and shopping centres and 45.3% had suffered episodes of forgetfulness after drinking.

But how the teenagers obtained their alcohol made a significant difference to the harm it caused them.

No teenage drinking was risk-free, the researchers said. However, teenagers were more likely to get into trouble if they bought cheap alcohol themselves, rather than gaining access to it through their parents.

Just under 20% of teens who drank once a week and were supplied with alcohol by their parents had been involved in violence when drunk. But the proportion getting into fights rose to 36% for those drinking as often after obtaining alcohol by other means.

A strong link was found between the availability of cheap drinks and alcohol-related violence, “regretted” sex, and drinking in public places.

Large bottles of cheap cider were especially associated with drinking in public, while relatively expensive “alcopops” drinks were not a significant problem.

Study leader Mark Bellis, from the Faculty of Applied Health and Social Science at Liverpool’s John Moores University, said: “The negative impacts of alcohol on children’s health are substantial. Those parents who choose to allow children aged 15 to 16 years to drink may limit harms by restricting consumption to lower frequencies (eg no more than once a week) and under no circumstances permitting binge drinking.

“However, parental efforts should be matched by genuine legislative and enforcement activity to reduce independent access to alcohol by children and to increase the price of cheap alcohol products.”

Writing in the journal BMC Public Health, the researchers warned that parents who tried to impose alcohol bans might only shift the problem away from the family into the street.

They added: “Our results suggest that such a move, even if overall consumption did not increase, could exacerbate negative outcomes from alcohol consumption among teenagers.”

Carefully introducing alcohol to children may help them “prepare themselves for life in an adult environment dominated by this drug”, said the researchers.

In their paper the scientists said alcohol had emerged in recent decades as “one of the major international threats to public health”.

It was the largest risk factor for disability and death in Europe, claiming 195,000 lives each year.

Worldwide, alcohol was believed to be responsible for 4% of the global disease burden.

“Despite much of the chronic burden of alcohol-related disease falling on adults, the foundations of such damage are often established in childhood,” the researchers wrote.