From Age 4 to 8, Children Become Increasingly Aware About Normative Situations for Adults to Consume Alcohol
Research article
Abstract
Aims
Limited cross-sectional studies have indicated that young children have some knowledge of the type of situations in which adults usually consume alcohol. However, it is unclear when and how this knowledge develops over time. This study tests the hypothesis that between the ages of 4 and 8, children become more knowledgeable about common alcohol use situations (e.g. ‘partying’) and uncommon situations (e.g. ‘driving’).
Methods
Data of two independent samples were used: a cross-sectional study (parents) and a three-wave longitudinal study (children). Parents and children were recruited via a convenience and random sampling strategy, respectively. To identify common, ambivalent, and uncommon alcohol use situations, parents (N = 158; 47% men) completed an online survey in which they indicated how common it is that any adult would consume alcohol in the 18 situations of the Dutch electronic appropriate beverage (eABT). Children (N = 329; 48.9% boys) completed the Dutch eABT to assess their knowledge of situations in which adults usually consume alcohol.
Results
General linear model repeated measures with post-hoc pairwise comparisons showed that parents’ perceptions of common, ambivalent, and uncommon situations in which adults consume alcohol predicted the initial level and the change over time in children’s knowledge of adults’ alcohol use in these situations.
Conclusions
Children aged 4–8 become increasingly knowledgeable about alcohol norms in specific situations which implies that they know in what kind of situation alcohol consumption is a common human behavior. This knowledge may put them at risk for early alcohol initiation and frequent alcohol use later in life.
Background
Descriptive social norms (DSN) refer to how prevalent or ‘normal’ a behavior is in a given context. They can be acquired through observation, imitation, and modelling of the collective behavior. Ample evidence shows that descriptive social norms determine alcohol use and subsequent heavy alcohol use in adolescence and adulthood.
A limited number of cross-sectional studies have demonstrated that norms regarding alcohol use (i.e. drinking norms) already exist in childhood.
Knowledge of alcohol consumption norms can be operationalized at two levels:
- person-specific (i.e. perception of who usually consumes alcohol), and
- situation-specific (i.e. perception of the situation in which adult’s alcohol use commonly occurs).
Of the few studies that have examined children’s knowledge of alcohol consumption norms, two investigated situation-specific alcohol norms.
Insight into the development of children’s knowledge of alcohol norms is crucial, since perceiving alcohol consumption as normal is a strong risk factor for alcohol initiation in adolescence and even predicts subsequent heavy and high-risk alcohol use years later. If the alcohol consumption norm related to common, ambivalent, and uncommon situations is learned and developed in childhood and persists or is reinforced in the subsequent years, this might be a cause of concern as common alcohol consumption situations (e.g. party) are more likely to be associated with alcohol initiation and high-risky alcohol use in adolescence and beyond compared to ambivalent or uncommon alcohol use situations (e.g. alcohol use in public parks).
The social environment strongly influences cognitive development.
Parents, as the primary caretakers of children, stimulate children’s cognitive development. Consequently, they are the primary source of children’s knowledge of alcohol and its use in adult culture. Evidence indicates that children as young as age 4 start to understand that alcohol is restricted to adults and more often consumed by men compared to women or children (i.e. person-specific alcohol norms). Children also start to comprehend that adults consume alcohol more often in more common alcohol consumption situations, such as when ‘having a party’, compared to more uncommon alcohol use situations, like when ‘playing outdoors’ or when ‘driving a car’ (i.e. situation-specific alcohol use norms). As alcohol-related cognitions become more comprehensive over the course of development, situation-specific alcohol norms should also become more comprehensive over the course of childhood.
Situation-specific alcohol norms can be divided in three types:
- common situations, where alcohol is frequently consumed (e.g. ‘having a party’);
- ambivalent situations, where alcohol may or may not be consumed (e.g. ‘watching TV’), and
- uncommon situations, where alcohol is consumed less frequently (e.g. ‘driving a car’).
The current study had two aims.
- The first aim was to classify 18 situations of the Dutch eABT as either common, ambivalent, or uncommon for adult’s alcohol use as perceived by parents (i.e. parental situation-specific alcohol norms) using parental data.
- The parents’ opinion of alcohol consumption in these three types of situations appears specifically important, as parents often act as role models for their children.
- The second aim was to use the obtained information and classification to investigate the development of children’s knowledge of the types of situations in which adults usually consume alcohol (i.e. situation-specific alcohol norms) over time by using the data from a three-wave longitudinal study.
Main findings
Children as young as 4 to 6 years of age can already distinguish situations in which the consumption of alcoholic beverages is more or less common.”
Carmen Voogt,, Koen Smit, Marloes Kleinjan, Roy Otten, Tessa Scheffers, Emmanuel Kuntsche
The researchers aimed to identify situations that parents deem common, ambivalent, or uncommon in terms of adults’ alcohol use (study 1).
Subsequently, the researchers aimed to examine whether this classification predicted children’s baseline knowledge of the types of situations in which adults usually consume alcohol (i.e. situation-specific alcohol norms) and its development over 2 years (study 2).
The current study is the first to provide longitudinal evidence on the development of situation-specific alcohol norms among young children.
The results from Study 1 showed that parents ranked situations involving working and driving as the two most uncommon situations for adult’s alcohol use while partying and having Christmas dinner were ranked as the two most common situations.
The results from Study 2 showed that children also considered these situations as uncommon and common alcohol use situations, respectively. Remarkably, children considered ‘watching TV’ as common situation for adults to consume alcohol, while parents ranked this situation as ambivalent suggesting that children might be more aware of habitual alcohol use by parents than parents themselves are aware.
Children as young as 4 to 6 years of age can already distinguish situations in which the consumption of alcoholic beverages is more or less common. Accordingly, children attributed less alcoholic beverages to adults in the ambivalent and uncommon alcohol consumption situations. These results add to two previous cross-sectional studies, showing that situation-specific alcohol use norms are already present in very young samples.
Parents indicated ‘party’ as the most common alcohol consumption situation, followed by ‘Christmas dinner,’ ‘dinner in a restaurant,’ ‘barbecue,’ and ‘terrace’. ‘Campsite,’ ‘having dinner,’ ‘celebrating Saint Nicolas,’ ‘watching TV,’ ‘having a picnic,’ ‘beach,’ and ‘playing a board game’ were classified as ambivalent alcohol consumption situations.
Importantly, this study indicated that children become increasingly aware of situation-specific alcohol use norms as they grow older. Specifically, they attributed greater consumption of alcoholic beverages to adults in the common alcohol consumption situations (e.g. ‘having a party’) compared to the uncommon alcohol consumption situations (e.g. ‘driving a car’). It should be noted, however, that children’s attributions of alcoholic beverages to adults in the ambivalent alcohol use situations slightly decreased over time, where a stable pattern was expected.
From age 4 onwards, children are increasingly capable of internalizing normative information through observational learning of adults or from exposure to media messages, thereby developing a greater knowledge of the prevalence and context of adult’s alcohol use. This is especially true for the common drinking situations in which alcohol is frequently consumed (most visible for children) and the uncommon alcohol consumption situations in which alcohol is less frequently consumed (least visible for children). Thus, as children get older they seem to be more aware of alcohol norms related to adults’ alcohol use in specific situations.
Meaning of the study results
Evidence of children’s knowledge about situation-specific alcohol norms and its development over time has the potential to contribute to primary alcohol prevention. When this knowledge persists or reinforces in the subsequent years, it can create the impression that alcohol use is omnipresent and socially endorsed in the social and physical surroundings, which was found to be related to adolescents’ (high-risk) alcohol use.
Since most Dutch children start using alcohol during early adolescence, primary alcohol prevention is mainly focusing on this age period.
Most studies have been conducted among drinkers rather than on factors related to alcohol use that are rooted in childhood, e.g. (any type of) social norms. Providing inside into the development of children’s knowledge about situation-specific alcohol use norms is a first step to answer the question how early primary alcohol prevention should start.
Future research should explore whether knowledge about situation-specific alcohol norms, acquired and developed in childhood, persists or is reinforced in adolescence.
Future research should also examine the impact of children’s knowledge of (any type of) alcohol use norms on alcohol initiation and subsequent use later in life. Additionally, future research should aim to investigate whether exposure to parental alcohol use (i.e. seeing parents consume alcohol) predict the acquisition and development of (any type of) children’s alcohol consumption norms, as parents often serve as role models regarding alcohol, and they might, unintendedly, transmit the ‘normality’ of alcohol use in different alcohol use situations to their children.
First evidence indicates that it is not parental alcohol use per se which has a direct impact on children’s alcohol-related cognitions and alcohol use, but rather children’s exposure to this consumption, that is, when parents consume alcoholic beverages in the presence of children and children see the consequences of their alcohol use. For example, alcohol use may occur after work when children aren’t around, compared to consuming alcohol in a restaurant when children are present and witness parents alcohol use behavior.
Possible differences in children’s exposure to observable alcohol use behavior and its consequences can explain why children’s knowledge of alcohol use norms differ between common, ambivalent, and uncommon alcohol use situations.
Furthermore, future research needs to focus on the influence of (social) media exposure on the acquisition and development of (any type of) children’s alcohol use norms. So far, the influence of (social) media exposure has not been explored in much detail among young children. Researchers are only just beginning to explore the effect of (social) media exposure on alcohol use (initiation) in adolescence, with a noticeable gap in relation to children’s developing alcohol-related cognitions, such as situation-specific alcohol use norms. It would also be beneficial to expand current research with future qualitative work by interviewing children to understand situation-specific alcohol norms and their origins in more detail.
Conclusion
This study enhances the understanding of situation-specific alcohol use norms in several ways.
- First, the findings confirm the importance to distinguish between common, ambivalent, and uncommon alcohol norms.
- Second, the findings revealed that children as young as 4–6 years of age already have knowledge of these three types of situation-specific alcohol norms.
- Third, the findings demonstrated that children from age 4–8 years become increasingly knowledgeable about alcohol norms in specific situations.
- Although several important conclusions can be derived from the findings, more research is needed to further understand how knowledge of (any type of) alcohol use norms in childhood is acquired (e.g. parental alcohol use exposure, (social) media) and how it affects alcohol initiation and subsequent drinking patterns usually occurring several years later.’