Modelling Society's Future Alcohol Consumers

"Kids model parental behaviour."
"Parents who drink in front of youngsters make drinking a norm."
Richard Mattick, National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

"Limited cross-sectional studies have indicated that young children have some knowledge of the type of situations in which adults usually consume alcohol. However, it is unclear when and how this knowledge develops over time. This study tests the hypothesis that between the ages of 4 and 8, children become more knowledgeable about common drinking situations (e.g. ‘partying’) and uncommon situations (e.g. ‘driving’)".
"Children aged 4–8 become increasingly knowledgeable about drinking norms in specific situations which implies that they know in what kind of situation alcohol consumption is a common human behavior. This knowledge may put them at risk for early alcohol initiation and frequent drinking later in life."
Study authors: Carmen Voogt, Koen Smit, Marloes Kleinjan, Roy Otten, Tessa Scheffers, Emmanuel Kuntsche, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht

A family meal, and a toast with adults drinking spirits and children fruit juice.  Getty Images

A Dutch study published in December of 2019 in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, reached the conclusion that any individual of average intelligence who has children of their own, might have arrived at, given the nature of children's curiosity about anything and everything and their propensity to model themselves after the adults of most importance in their lives, their parents. The study doesn't exactly break new ground in that children who come from families where drinking alcohol is part of daily routines, tend themselves to gravitate to that very same habitual use of spirits.

However, since the conclusion derives from an academic study whose main author has conducted many previous studies revolving around similar situations and circumstances, the findings have the added weight not only of common sense, direct observation and logical conclusion, but that of scientific affirmation. Researchers involved in the study enquired of 75 fathers and 83 mothers their opinion of routine situations where adults take alcohol in a series of situations such as during a party, at work, while watching television or while driving.

Following which 359 unrelated children between the ages of four to eight were asked to identify which situations they might feel it to be commonplace or appropriate for adults to indulge in consuming alcohol. The researchers reported that as children aged they became ever more aware of the social normative around alcohol consumption. They have learned from observation when drinking is appropriate and the number of drinks that seem permissible, resulting from noting how the adults in their lives behave.

A take-away for the researchers, as a result of this study, is that familiarity with alcohol may lead children to be likelier to begin drinking earlier in life, or lead additionally to a casual attitude of more frequent alcohol consumption, included as part of everyday living. The study identified that fathers tend to drink greater amounts of alcohol than mothers, with men consuming roughly 8.6 standardized alcohol units weekly, as compared to 4.4 for women.

One unit, comprised of 10 grams of ethanol or pure alcohol could be seen as the equivalent of one to three drinks relative to the alcohol content in each beverage. Most frequently, drinking by parents was perceived to be common at social events such as parties, at holiday dinners, during dinners taken at restaurants, or home barbecues. Fewer parents described drinking as being common to everyday dinners, while at a picnic, or while watching television, and while driving drinking was seen to be an uncommon event.

According to the parents responding to the study, fewer regarded drinking to be common while reading, working or eating lunch. It was the observation of children, on the other  hand who found drinking more common while watching television or while attending parties. And, similar to the adults in the study, children found drinking to be uncommon while reading, eating lunch or working at an office. Adults, according to children, consumed more alcohol in common situations, leading the study authors to the conclusion that children are learning drinking behaviour from their close observations of adults.

The study authors acknowledged that their study was comprised of a small sample of participants, since very few parents and children agreed to participate in the study when invited to do so. And due to its limited participants the study may not accurately reflect attitudes prevalent in a representative total of Dutch families. Their findings, however, suggest children are aware of social norms respecting alcohol consumption from an early age.

And what is troubling about that is the reality that most Dutch youth begin a lifetime of drinking while in their adolescent years; familiarity through familial exposure having assured the youth that alcohol consumption is a normal component of everyday life. And while in the Netherlands many prevention efforts place their focus on this age demographic, the timing may be too late to be effective in turning young people away from alcohol consumption.