A study of over 15,000 children by Demos says parenting style is one of the most important and statistically reliable influences on whether a child will drink responsibly in adolescence and adulthood - see Demos press release and blog, and coverage in the Telegraph and Huffington Post.
The findings appear to support the recent JRF report that emphasised the importance of parents in influencing teenager's drinking, and research reviews assessing parenting interventions.
Download Under the influence
The Demos press release stated:
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 Under the Influence report 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’.
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 binge-drinking will not have the reach or impact desired to combat the problem.
Recommendation headlines from the report include:
For parents:
- Discipline and supervision at age of initiation (15–16)
- Warmth during the early years (0–5) and up to the age of 10
- Careful monitoring of alcohol access
For Government:
- Enforcement of under-age drinking laws
- Local partnerships to target trouble areas
- Investment in alcohol-related school programmes that involve parents
- Spreading the six-week summer holiday throughout the year and providing activities for at-risk children
See further detail of the recommendations in the press release. The final Demos report is still to be released, but the the interim 'Under the Influence' is available.
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