Children and teens who are given alcohol by their parents are much more likely to be drinking full serves of alcohol by age 15 or 16, but less likely to binge drink, according to a UNSW study which followed nearly 2,000 children and their parents over four years from Year 7 onwards.

Lead author of the study published in the British Journal Psychological Medicine, University of New South Wales Professor Richard Mattick, a Principal NHMRC Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said the study was prompted by widespread interest in the ‘European model’ of introducing children to alcohol, whereby children are offered sips of alcohol by their parents from a young age, a practise some people believe to be protective of later harmful drinking....................