Parent/child rapport may reduce youth drinking issues (Contemporary Pediatrics)

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Parent/child rapport may reduce youth drinking issues

Apr 29, 2009 By: Stephanie Skernivitz Contemporary Pediatrics

Quality of relationship may make all the difference in reducing drinking problems for some teens. A new study found that if parents share a solid relationship with their teenage children, those children may be more likely to begin drinking at a later age than if the relationship suffered.

Reported in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, the findings highlight the significance of parent/child relationships when addressing problem drinking. Until now, the thinking had been that drinking early on in life is the problem that leads to later problem drinking, according to the study author Emmanuel Kuntsche, MD.

"Our work shows that the 'preventive effect' of a later drinking age is likely to be a side effect of a good parent-child relationship," he said in a statement. "In other words, the circumstances in which that first drink occurs - and how parents deal with it - is important."

Study authors interviewed 364 teenagers three times in two years. What was discovered was that teens who reported an earlier drinking age at the first survey were often drinking more heavily by the second survey, and had even higher risk of drinking-related issues by the third survey.

However, further investigation of the data shows how parents influenced drinking patterns. Only teenagers who reported drinking at a later age and a high-quality relationship with their parents had a lower risk of drinking issues compared with peers.

A quality relationship was defined as one where teenagers could discuss issues with their parents and parents respected their feelings.