Poor parenting increases likelihood of binge drinking at ages 16 and 34

A study of over 15,000 children by the left-leaning think tank Demos shows parenting style is one of the most important and statistically reliable influences on whether a child ‘will drink responsibly in adolescence and adulthood’.

Demos found that ‘tough love’ parenting, combining consistent warmth and discipline, was the most effective parenting style to prevent unhealthy relationships with alcohol right into the mid-thirties age range.

The report, Under the Influence, funded by brewer SABMiller, is based on an analysis of data on over 15,000 children born in Great Britain over the last 40 years and followed up by the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS), a large, well-respected longitudinal study of children and their parents in Great Britain.

Odds of excessive drinking at age 16 by parenting style when child was age 16

The analysis found that:

Bad parenting at age 10 makes the child twice as likely to drink excessively at age 34

Bad parenting at age 16 makes the child over eight times more likely to drink excessively at that age

Bad parenting at age 16 makes the child over twice as likely to drink excessively at age 34

The report also found that high levels of parental warmth and attachment at an early age and strict discipline at the age of 16 are the best parenting styles to reduce the likelihood that a child will binge-drink in adolescence and adulthood. While ‘tough love’ was the best parenting style to ensure against children becoming binge drinkers, less effective parenting styles were ‘authoritarian’, ‘laissez faire’ and ‘disengaged’.

Binge-drinking figures in the UK have officially been dropping since the early 2000’s, but Demos argues that the culture of a bingedrinking minority that has become more extreme, and more public, has fed the media’s infatuation with a ‘boozed-up Britain’.

Demos stresses that the lead role in how to deal with an entrenched binge culture needs to be taken by parents and government must support parents to do this. Without the active involvement of parents, policy to deal with bingedrinking will not have the reach or impact desired to combat the problem.

Recommendations include:

For parents:

Discipline and supervision at age of initiation (15–16)

Strict discipline and supervision are extremely important at this age, for teaching children personal responsibility over the long term as well as protecting them from alcohol use and misuse in the short term. This holds true for both general parenting and alcohol-specific techniques. The evidence suggests that parents should not take a relaxed attitude to underage consumption, should discuss alcohol with their children within the context of setting firm boundaries, should avoid being drunk around their children and should actively ensure that their children develop sensible and responsible expectations of alcohol consumption.

Warmth during the early years (0–5) and up to the age of 10

Most parents will develop a warm and loving relationship in the early years of their children’s lives. The report stresses the importance of such a relationship for developing a number of extremely important life skills, including responsible drinking in later life.

Careful monitoring of alcohol access

Easy access to alcohol in the home is one of the key predictors of alcohol consumption and drunkenness among teenagers. Ensuring that alcohol in the home is monitored and that teenagers do not have access to it is an important element of a ‘tough love’ approach.

For Government:

Enforcement of under-age drinking laws

Discipline at 16 is an important mitigating factor against excessive alcohol consumption, even if it is not parent-led. By taking a strong line on enforcing the law of sales and proxy sales of alcohol to under-age drinkers, the government can help parents enforce alcohol boundaries by making it much harder for children to obtain alcohol. Such enforcement also helps strengthen the social norm that under-age drinking is not acceptable. Research shows that young people who buy their own alcohol are especially at risk of becoming problem drinkers.

Local partnerships to target trouble areas

Enforcement schemes can be effective if they are part of a broad local partnership of police, the local authority and retailers. Community alcohol partnerships, business improvement districts and Pub Watch are all examples of multicomponent responses, where police, local retailers, local authorities and others work together to solve specific local alcoholrelated problems such as under-age drinking or anti-social behaviour. The forthcoming alcohol strategy must contain a commitment to help these schemes.

Investment in alcoholrelated school programmes that involve parents

Contrary to popular belief, evidence shows that teaching children specifically about alcohol and its dangers in school is not particularly effective at moderating their drinking behaviour. However, if the parents are involved, and the intervention deals with general life skills such as sociability, autonomy, application and so on, school-based programmes can be effective. The forthcoming alcohol strategy should ensure resources for school-based activities are targeted on these types of programmes. Where spending on alcohol reduction strategies does not clearly display effectiveness, it might be better to scrap symptom focused interventions and spend the money instead on evidence-based parenting programmes that are proven to work.

Spreading the six-week summer holiday throughout the year and providing activities for at-risk children

For children without engaged parents or in deprived communities the long summer holiday can provide opportunities to engage in risky behaviour like binge drinking. Structured activities can not only avoid boredom that leads to risky behaviour but can also provide inter-generational mixing that is crucial for young people’s positive development.

Jamie Bartlett, lead author of the report, said:

“The enduring impact of parenting on a child’s future relationship with alcohol cannot be ignored. This is good for parents: those difficult moments of enforcing tough rules really do make a difference, even if it doesn’t always feel like that at the time.

“While levels of binge drinking have fallen for five years running, there is a minority of extreme, publically visible, drinkers. No matter how high minimum pricing on alcohol is, there will be a hardcore of binge drinkers who will find a way to pay for it.

“For children whose parents may be disengaged, very practical measures, like spreading the school summer holiday throughout the year and providing activities for children in the school breaks, will go some way to preventing boredom and avoiding risky behaviour like under-age drinking.”

Under the Influence by Jamie Bartlett, Matt Grist and Bryanna Hahn can be downloaded free from www.demos.co.uk