Teenage Drinking

Teenage drinking is a major social concern. Using data from a major UK birth cohort study this book examines both the early childhood predictors of underage drinking and the longer-term adult consequences. Around 10% of 16-year-old teenagers were classified as hazardous drinkers. Hazardous drinking was more common amongst boys, and was associated with higher rates of drug use, and violent offending. The main childhood predictors of hazardous teenage drinking included antisocial behaviour, high extroversion and maternal drinking in pregnancy. Depression, anxiety and socio-economic status were not associated with increased alcohol consumption. Adolescent drinking predicted adult drinking after controlling for a wide range of other predictors. Likewise, the relationship between maternal drinking (both during pregnancy and in the child's teenage years) predicted adult drinking. There was no evidence that emotional problems were associated with higher levels of adult drinking. This analysis has major implications for the design and development of alcohol prevention programmes, and should be especially useful to professionals working with teenagers across a wide variety of settings.