Teen drinking declines as parents change their attitude to alcohol consumption

The research was conducted in collaboration between Deakin University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and analysed survey data collected from more than Australian 41,000 adolescents (with an average age of 13.5). The results of the study, published in Drug and Alcohol Review, revealed a significant decrease in teenage alcohol consumption since the turn of the century.
 
While close to 70% of teenagers reported having already drunk alcohol in 1999, that number dropped to 45% in 2015.
 
According to the study, parents’ changing attitudes towards teenage drinking have been be a factor in the decline, with evidence of a reduced tendency for parents to supply alcohol to their children.
 
Lead researcher Professor John Toumbourou, Chair in Health Psychology at Deakin’s School of Psychology, has hailed the reduced levels of teenage drinking as ‘a huge public health success story for Australia’.
 
‘It shows parents are making radical changes in their attitude to underage drinking, and also how they model their own drinking behaviour,’ he said. ‘We can see that parents are taking on the advice from our national health guidelines that even a small amount of alcohol is harmful to teenagers.
 
‘This shows that programs such as school drug education, restrictive underage purchase laws, market regulation, and parent education are all critical in ensuring we protect our young people from drug and alcohol harm.’
 
In addition, tighter restrictions on serving alcohol to minors has played a role in the reduced levels of drinking, with underage purchase of alcohol dropping from 12% to 1% during the survey period.

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