Teenage Drinking: Perils, Parents, & Peers

Parties are meant to be fun and most people would agree with this sentiment in principle but unfortunately the reality of a party can be very different. Why? Not all parties are fun. Yes, some parties are but there are other parties where the main purpose seems to be to drink and drink to excess; or to binge drink. Teenage parties are becoming increasingly perilous. So what’s gone so terribly wrong?


Today’s young people are exposed to tremendous peer pressure to ‘fit in’ with everyone else and there is no greater peer pressure than at a teenage party. The party scene is a major player in the culture of teenage drinking and creates an atmosphere where young people can be introduced to alcohol at an early age.

Make no mistake though, alcohol is a drug. It’s not a safe option to drugs; it is in itself, a drug and as such has many high risks associated with its consumption, particularly to excess and particularly by teenagers who are underage. Alcohol is a depressant and while in the first instance, there may be a high associated with initial drinking, the more alcohol that is consumed the more that a person’s moods, cognitive reasoning, judgement and spatial awareness is adversely affected.

The new data, from The 22nd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), underscore alarming patterns in early adolescent alcohol use and found that teens view drinking alcohol – even heavy drinking – as less risky than using other substances. The PATS study also highlights that as underage drinking becomes more normalized among adolescents, parents feel unable to respond to the negative shifts in teen drug and alcohol use.

Underage drinking in Australia is someone drinking alcohol who is under eighteen years of age and binge drinking, which is having four or more drinks for women and five or more for men in a relatively short period of time, is harmful in the short term and may have more serious long term effects such as alcoholism and adverse effects on the brain and reasoning capacity.

Parents mistakenly believe that by allowing their teenagers to drink alcohol they will prevent them from experimenting with other drugs, which parents perceive as being more harmful. This perhaps is one of the biggest misconceptions that parents have in regards to drinking alcohol.

Because of these myths, many parents play a large role in contributing to our teen drinking culture by either supplying alcohol to their own teenagers to take to parties or hosting parties for underage teens and allow them to BYO alcohol. Even if a parent has made it very clear that there is to be no alcohol at the party, many teenagers find very inventive ways of bringing alcohol anyway.

“A talk about alcohol is very important, but when you send your teenager off to a party with alcohol it is important to know that common sense and trust will stay at home and the risk of alcohol related harm follows right behind them.”

(From: KEEPemSAFE – Keeping our young people safe from alcohol related harm)

Research reported in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, (May 2011), showed that allowing teenagers to drink alcohol under adult supervision does not appear to teach responsible drinking as teens get older. In fact, such a ‘harm minimisation’, approach may actually lead to more drinking and alcohol related consequences, according to the study. Another study of 500 12-15 year olds, found that the amount of alcohol kept in the home, rather than the amount of alcohol parents themselves drank was a factor of how much teens drink. The researchers suggest that parents should try to keep alcohol where it is inaccessible to teens.

Did you know that alcohol related accidents are a leading cause of teen deaths? Teen drowning, suicides and murders also have been linked to alcohol use. The other risks include drink driving, unsafe sex, impaired brain development and possible injuries from alcohol fuelled arguments or fights.

The latest research highlights a number of issues surrounding the ‘teenage drinking culture’ of young people, for example an extensive study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that there is a great risk of harm associated with the acute effects of alcohol intoxication. Yet parental intervention and present measures of education of the potential harm do little to stall drinking alcohol in young people to an age that is both legally and developmentally appropriate.

Experimentation of alcohol consumption causes young people to be ‘normed’ by the teenage group. If your son or daughter mixes with young people who drink to intoxication and drink regularly, there is a very strong likelihood that your son and daughter will follow suit. It’s so important for parents to find out all of the details of the ‘party’ and I mean all of the fine details like:

• Is the party supervised and are there parents present the whole time?

• Is there an adult or security person to stop gatecrashers arriving?

• Is there alcohol available?

One other recent study reported in Science Daily, which surveyed nearly 5000 parents and adolescents between ages of 12 and 19 about drinking habits, reveals that in many cases, parents don’t influence whether their teen tries alcohol. The good news is though that parenting styles influence the extent to which young people drink.

The teens least likely to drink to excess had parents who scored high on both accountability and warmth. So called ‘indulgent’ parents, those low on accountability and high on warmth nearly tripled the risk of their teen participating in heavy drinking. ‘Strict’ parents high on accountability and low on warmth, more than doubled their teen’s risk of heavy drinking.

The ‘takeaway’ for parents is this, according to the researchers:

“Realise you need to have both accountability and support in your relationship with your teenager,” Hoffmann said. “Make sure that it’s not just about controlling their behaviour – you need to combine knowing how they spend their time away from home with a warm, loving relationship.”

It’s clear that the research on teenage drinking highlights as many problems as it resolves. Parents who continue to have high accountability for their teenagers and have a warm loving home environment are providing important boundaries for their sons or daughters. Protective factors include a strong partnership with the School. The Student Code of Behaviour states the following in both the Student’s School Diary and the Parent Handbook - verbatim quote:

5. Students will behave in a manner which enhances their reputation and the good reputation of the School. Disrespect to staff, causing harm to others, interference with the property of others, bringing the School into disrepute, or involvement with drugs (including cigarettes and alcohol) are regarded as serious behavioural issues which may result in a student being excluded from the School.

Acceptance and support of the School’s expectations that students at the School do not consume alcohol will provide further protective factors for your son and daughter. Also the School will also ensure through our Life Skills Program and curriculum that we will educate young people about the risks and potential harm of drinking alcohol at any age, but particularly underage. This partnership of shared values between the School and families will give our children the very best start and understanding of inherent dangers of drinking to excess and ultimately lead to more responsible attitudes and beliefs as they mature into adults. I finish with this quote from one of the researchers, Barbara McMorris, Ph.D:

“Both studies show that parents matter,” McMorris concludes “Despite the fact that peers and friends become an important influence as adolescents get older, parents still have a big impact."

Karon Graham