Purpose / aim of the report: Little research in Great Britain (GB) has examined young people's use of no/low drinks or parents' acceptance or facilitation of adolescents consuming no/low drinks in a family setting. The overarching aim of this project was to examine how no/low drinks are perceived, used, and shaped within family and social contexts in GB. This was achieved by examining adults’ attitudes toward adolescent consumption, alongside adolescents’ and young people’s patterns, motivations, and experiences of consuming no/low drinks, to clarify the role families play in influencing these behaviours.

Background / context: Alcohol-specific deaths increased to a record high in 20231, and alcohol is a leading risk factor for ill health2. Several uncertainties remain regarding the potential positive and negative impacts of more widespread consumption of no/low drinks3. Crucially for this report, little is known about the ways in which young people (for this project defined as 16–25-year-olds) and adolescents (12–17-year-olds) consume and experience no/low drinks, particularly in GB. There is also little known about how no/low consumption amongst young people interacts with alcohol consumption trends.

Methods: Throughout this project we took a convergent mixed methods approach. We added questions to an existing nationally representative survey, the Alcohol Toolkit Study (ATS). By adding new questions to the ATS in April, June and August 2025 we collected new data on i) adults' (aged 18+) attitudes towards adolescent use of no/lows, ii) young people's (aged 16-25) use of no/lows and iii) temporal sequencing of no/low and alcohol drinks for young people. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 dyads made up of primary carers and their adolescent children aged 13-17 about their perspectives on and experiences of the consumption of alcoholic and no/low drinks in and beyond family settings.

Key findings: Around half and a third of surveyed adults in GB thought it was acceptable for young people to drink alcohol-free and low alcohol drinks respectively, with the rest remaining unsure or finding it unacceptable. Most parents interviewed viewed adolescent use of no/lows as broadly acceptable. Despite this, no/low drink use was low in GB among young adults and adolescents. Only ~15% of 1625-year-olds consumed them in the last month in 2022-2025, and few interviewed adolescents Young People's Consumption of Alcohol-Free and Low-Alcohol Drinks in Family Settings 4 reported either use or interest in use. Largely, adolescents and primary carers felt that no/lows were irrelevant to adolescents. No/lows were viewed as an alternative to alcohol for adults who were choosing not to drink alcohol. Judgements around the acceptability of adolescent use of no/lows were dependent on context. In the survey, for both alcohol-free and low alcohol drinks, family settings were considered the most acceptable (64% and 56% respectively) and settings with friends were considered the least acceptable (44% and 28% respectively). Primary carers who provided their adolescent children with no/low drinks tended to report doing so within the family home or at family events or meals. There was no evidence of a no/low gateway effect. Young adults who drank no/lows first did not report significantly lower ages at which they first consumed alcohol or greater alcohol consumption. However, there was not convincing evidence that no/lows have public health benefits either; young people first drinking no/lows did not report significantly delayed age of initiation for alcohol or less alcohol consumed. Young people reporting first drinking no/lows also reported delays in first drunkenness, though these findings were uncertain.

Conclusions: No/low consumption amongst young adults is currently relatively rare, ~15% of 16–25-year-olds had used them in the last month. In that context, no/low drinks currently appear to have limited influence, either positive or negative, on young people’s drinking behaviours. It will be important to continue monitoring this as the market and product popularity evolves. Furthermore, research using designs that allow more robust testing of causal gateway effects, for example longitudinal data from cohort studies, would be of value.