If you think that sharing a peg with your teenaged son or daughter may teach them how to deal with alcohol responsibly and protect them from engaging in heavy drinking, you may be wrong. Instead, parental provision of alcohol was associated with increased likelihood of teenagers accessing alcohol through other sources, compared with teenagers not given any alcohol. Importantly, teenagers supplied with alcohol by only their parents for one year were twice as likely to access alcohol from other sources the next year. This practice by parents is intended to protect teenagers from the harm of heavy drinking by introducing them to alcohol carefully. For the study, published in The Lancet Public Health journal, researchers recruited teenagers from secondary schools and their parents between 2010 and 2011.

Source: Hindustan Times January 29, 2018 11:15 UTC