Parents' drinking influences teenagers

Teenagers take cues from their parents when it comes to alcohol. Past studies have found that parents can be a strong influence on their children's odds of drinking. Knowing how parents influence their kids may encourage them to seek help for their own drinking problems, or in improving their parenting skills. American researchers studied 4,731 teenagers and their parents. The parents were asked about their past and present drinking habits, as well as any alcohol problems. Their children were asked about any drinking at the ages of 14 and 17, and about their views of their home life. This included whether they thought their parents were warm and caring, indifferent or unjust. They also described their parents' tendency to monitor or punish them. It was found that parents' drinking habits appeared to influence their children in both direct and indirect ways. In the first case, teenagers seemed to simply follow the example of a parent who drank excessively. In the second case, many teens seemed to view parents' drinking as a sign of lax parenting, and this, in turn, affected their likelihood of drinking. Overall, parents' drinking levels correlated with those of their teenagers. But it was more than a matter of the teenagers simply copying their parents. The link was partially explained by the teens' perceptions of their parents as monitors and disciplinarians. Parents who drank heavily tended to be lax in monitoring their children's comings and goings, but tended to punish them more often. Those tendencies seemed to influence their teenagers' odds of drinking and getting drunk. The findings suggest that parents who monitor their children may lower their odds of drinking. On the other hand excessive discipline might have the unintended effect of pushing teenagers to drink.