How families, friends, and advertising and the media influence the ways children and young people learn about and behave towards alcohol. The often excessive use of alcohol by young people is a major concern for policy-makers, communities, parents and many young people themselves. This excessive use of alcohol does not suddenly occur. By the time they start to drink alcohol, children have well-developed attitudes, expectations, and intentions about alcohol, acquired and developed through a process of socialisation. This report looks in detail at the influences on children and the effect these have on their alcohol use.

The report examines:
• key family processes and structures which influence the development of knowledge, attitudes and subsequent behaviour;
• processes of peer selection and mutual influence;
• the influence of marketing and cultural representations of alcohol;
• other major forces such as country, ethnicity and race, religion, school, community, socio-economic status, and other cultural factors.