Bad parenting creates adolescents and young adults who drink to excess

Tweet 8/27/11, "Parenting style strongly affects drinking, Demos says," BBC

"Parenting style is one of the strongest influences on how a child drinks as a young adult, a study suggests.

• Independent think tank Demos studied data based on more than 30,000 children born in the UK in the last 40 years....

Data used in Demos's study came from the 1970 British Cohort Study and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children....

It found that a "tough love" style of parenting was the best way to ensure children drank more responsibly when they were aged between 16 and 34.

The research also suggests that being too authoritarian with children could be as ineffectual as being too casual.

Researchers found that the best approach was for parents to be warm and affectionate until the age of 10 and then combine this with more discipline. Then at ages 15 to 16 there should be more supervision.

It found high levels of parental attachment when children were aged under five significantly

• reduced the chances of them drinking excessively later in life.

Demos's study found children more than eight times more likely to drink excessively at that age and

• over twice as likely to binge drink when they were 34."

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