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	A third of adolescents and half of parents report &ldquo;hazardous drinking&rdquo;, according to a University College Cork study.</p>
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	Documenting a strong link between the liberal attitudes of parents to alcohol and their children&rsquo;s drinking, the research urges health-action plans to target both the behaviour of adolescents and the attitudes of their parents.</p>
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	The study noted the different influences of fathers and mothers in their children&rsquo;s behaviour and attitudes to alcohol.</p>
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	The adolescents of fathers who were drinking hazardously were three times as likely to report hazardous consumption themselves.</p>
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	Hazardous drinking was defined by the World Health Organisation as &ldquo;a pattern of alcohol consumption that increases the risk of harmful consequences for the user or others&rdquo;.</p>
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	The study, published in BMC Public Health, was based on 366 students, from fifth and sixth year, and 542 parents, in the Mallow and Kanturk areas of Co Cork.</p>
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	Researchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Heath carried out the work, in 2014 and 2015.</p>
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	The result was that 34% of adolescents, and 47% of parents, surveyed reported hazardous drinking.</p>
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	The majority of adolescents &mdash; some 68% &mdash; were under the legal age.</p>
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	The median age of pupils was 17 and 55% were female.</p>
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	90% of parents disagreed with allowing their adolescent to get drunk &mdash; but 20% of parents said they would not be worried if their child consumed four pints of alcohol once a month.</p>
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	The report said that &ldquo;a large majority of parents&rdquo; (43%) agreed with permitting their adolescent to drink on special occasions.</p>
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	The survey found that if an adolescent was a hazardous drinker, their father was more likely to agree with the proposition that it&rsquo;s &lsquo;okay for the adolescent to get drunk sometimes&rsquo; (15% v 3%).</p>
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	Similarly, fathers of hazardous-drinking adolescents were more likely to agree that &lsquo;getting drunk is part of having fun as an adolescent&rsquo; (13% v4%).</p>
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	The mother of an adolescent reporting hazardous drinking was more likely to agree that &lsquo;it&rsquo;s okay for their adolescent to get drunk sometimes&rsquo; (6% v 1%).</p>
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	The survey, however, found no observed effect on adolescents from their mothers&rsquo; drinking.</p>
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	But it said mothers had an influence on their children&rsquo;s attitude towards alcohol.</p>
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	&ldquo;Introducing alcohol at home, on special occasions, may be causing increased levels of consumption among adolescents,&rdquo; it said.</p>
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	&ldquo;A more authoritative parenting style may have a protective effect.&rdquo;</p>
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	The authors said that, as 68% of adolescents were under the legal age, there was an &ldquo;urgent need&rdquo; to understand how they are accessing alcohol and improving law enforcement.</p>
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	Concluding, it highlighted the &ldquo;influencing nature&rdquo; of fathers and mothers on adolescent behaviour and attitudes to drinking.</p>
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	&ldquo;In future, we recommend that any action plan to tackle adolescent-drinking behaviours should also be aimed at tackling parents&rsquo; attitudes towards, and consumption of, alcohol.&rdquo;</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Examiner on the 29th August 2016)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/parents-key-role-in-childrens-drinking-418210.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/parents-key-role-in-childrens-drinking-418210.html</a></p>
