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Children and teenagers of any age who sip or taste alcohol with their parents\u2019 permission are\u00a0more likely to engage in risky drinking<\/a>\u00a0in young adulthood. That was the finding of a new study my colleagues and I published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.<\/p>\n In the study, we examined questionnaires filled out annually between 2009 and 2018 by 387 adolescents starting at age 11 and an accompanying parent. Topics included history of child and parent alcohol use, beliefs about alcohol and rules about alcohol in the home. The questionnaires also asked adolescents if they ever drank alcohol with their parents\u2019 permission, even just a few sips \u2013 and if yes, at what age they first did so.<\/p>\n We analyzed whether drinking alcohol with parental permission during adolescence predicted alcohol outcomes in young adulthood, at ages 18 to 20. These outcomes included how often and how much they drank,\u00a0alcohol use disorder symptoms<\/a>\u00a0and negative consequences such as self-injury and regretting things said while drinking.<\/p>\n Then, we looked at whether the age at which this practice began affected likelihood of risky drinking. In our analysis, we also accounted for factors such as peer alcohol use, parental alcohol use and personality.<\/p>\n In our sample, drinking with parental permission began anywhere from age 5 to age 17, but typically started around age 12. We found that about 80% of the adolescents responded that they had drunk alcohol with parental permission. That number is higher than in some other studies, most likely because our study had a wide age range. Research exploring this topic\u00a0generally focuses on younger adolescents<\/a>, who are less likely to be allowed to try alcohol by their parents, but this practice becomes\u00a0more common as adolescents get older<\/a>.<\/p>\n We found that adolescents were more likely in young adulthood to drink more often and in greater amounts in families that allowed this practice compared with those that did not. The risk of experiencing symptoms of alcohol use disorder and negative consequences from drinking in young adulthood was also higher. Importantly, the age at which drinking with parents\u2019 permission began did not change this effect.<\/p>\n