Does Drinking With Parents Help Teens Drink More Responsibly? Not Really

When I was in high school, my parents laid down a few ground rules about exactly how “liberating” my teenage emancipation was going to be. No driving without an adult in the car past dark, no staying out past 11 p.m., and no, absolutely no, drinking.

Well, it turns out Mom and Dad were on to something (don't you hate it when that happens?). A new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota found that teens who drink under their parents' supervision — the occasional sip at dinner or during holidays — are more likely to become problem drinkers a few years later than those whose parents, like mine, adopted a zero-tolerance policy.

When it comes to underage drinking, there are two schools of thought. Some are convinced that teens are too young and inexperienced to handle alcohol, and not ready to make decisions about how much is too much or how to drink responsibly.

Then there are those who point to cultures where alcohol isn't so taboo for adolescents, where adults allow their children to drink a little in their presence, and where alcoholism rates are no different from those in countries where underage drinking is illegal. By incorporating alcohol into youngsters' lives from an early age, and not making it a forbidden fruit, they argue, teens are less likely to abuse it as adults.

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By: Alice Park, www.healthland.time.com