Pre-teens learning about alcohol: drinking and family contexts

Abstract

This report examines the influence that family can have on how children in their pre-teen years

learn about alcohol, and identifies the need for and approaches to providing parental guidance

on the subject. Childhood experiences and the infl uence of family are crucial to forming future drinking habits. Much emphasis has been placed on understanding the impact of problem drinking within the family, especially on children in their teenage years. Much less is known

about how younger children learn about alcohol in so-called ‘ordinary families’. This report examines how different economic circumstances, parenting styles and parents’ drinking behaviours can infl uence how children view and understand alcohol.

The report:

• provides a children’s perspective on exposure to family drinking and sampling alcohol;

• offers insights into the ways that parents introduce alcohol, and into their infl uence over future drinking behaviour; and

• illustrates the diversity of parental approaches through a series of family case studies.