Age of onset of adolescent alcohol use with parental permission and its impact on drinking and alcohol-harms in young adulthood: A longitudinal study
Highlights
- Adolescent alcohol use with parental permission (PP) predicts later alcohol harms.
- How age of onset of alcohol use with parental permission effects later outcomes is poorly understood.
- This is the first study of age of onset of parental permission in a US sample.
- Consuming alcohol with parental permission is risky and did not depend on age of onset.
- Important to convey that parental provision is risky, regardless of adolescent age.
Summary of findings
People Magazine reports that allowing underage youth to consume alcohol at home “normalizes” alcohol use. This makes teens more likely to develop alcohol dependency and other risky alcohol use behaviors when they’re older.
Many parents believe it to be an effective harm reduction strategy because it provides an opportunity to supervise [alcohol consumption],” a study in the journal Addictive Behaviors found.
However, “parental provision of alcohol and permission to alcohol increases in future alcohol-related harms.
Even sipping/ tasting in early adolescence … is predictive of heavy alcohol use and alcohol-related harms in young adulthood.”
Bernard Pereda, Nathaniel Caluda-Perdue, Samuel Levy, Lillianna Zhang, Craig R. Colder, Age of onset of adolescent alcohol use with parental permission and its impact on drinking and alcohol-harms in young adulthood: A longitudinal study, Addictive Behaviors, Volume 164, 2025, 108271, ISSN 0306-4603, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108271.
The study also showed that it didn’t matter what age kids were allowed to experiment with alcohol, as per People Magazine reporting:
A robust relationship was found between parental permission to use alcohol during adolescence and increased alcohol use frequency and quantity, alcohol use disorder symptoms, and alcohol-related harms in young adulthood.”
Bernard Pereda, Nathaniel Caluda-Perdue, Samuel Levy, Lillianna Zhang, Craig R. Colder, Age of onset of adolescent alcohol use with parental permission and its impact on drinking and alcohol-harms in young adulthood: A longitudinal study, Addictive Behaviors, Volume 164, 2025, 108271, ISSN 0306-4603, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108271.
While parents may think that children will be “more measured” with alcohol if they experiment at home, the data says the opposite:
Kids who consume alcohol under supervision at home go on to consume more alcohol, to use alcohol more frequently, and to have more trouble with alcohol.
Abstract
Parental permission to use alcohol is common in adolescence, and many parents believe it to be an effective harm reduction strategy because it provides an opportunity to supervise alcohol use.
Contrary to this belief, prior research has consistently linked parental provision of alcohol and permission to consume alcohol to increases in future alcohol-related harms.
Whether the age of onset of parental permission to use alcohol influences these outcomes is poorly understood.
This study is the first to investigate the impact of age of onset of parental permission to use alcohol on later alcohol use outcomes, utilizing a longitudinal US community sample of adolescents (n = 387).
The analysis included nine annual waves of data and accounted for risk and protective factors at the individual, peer, and family levels.
Consistent with prior research, a robust relationship was found between parental permission to use alcohol during adolescence and increased alcohol use frequency and quantity, alcohol use disorder symptoms, and alcohol-related harms in young adulthood.
Age of onset of parental permission was not associated with later alcohol use outcomes, suggesting a uniform risk effect of parental permission to consume alcohol.
Public health messaging to parents should seek to correct perceptions of supervised alcohol use as a harm reduction strategy and emphasize the harm of parental permission to use alcohol, regardless of age.