(HealthDay is the new name for HealthScoutNews.)
FRIDAY, Aug. 22, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- It's not the fake ID that is the gateway to alcohol for kids. It's the family liquor cabinet.
That's the key conclusion of three just-released surveys on underage drinking, sponsored by the liquor industry.
The surveys of more than 1,000 kids under 18 and 1,600 parents found that two-thirds of the children and more than half their parents agreed that the main source of alcohol for underage drinkers came from family and friends, although the parents tended to report that they were not providing alcohol.
"We don't absolve the industry of responsibility for preventing underage drinking, but the parents play a major role and need to understand that this is where access is taking place," says Ralph S. Blackman, president of the Century Council, a nonprofit group that conducted the surveys as part of a national public awareness program to combat underage drinking. The council is funded by some of America's leading distillers, including Allied Dome Spirits & Wine North America, Bacardi USA Inc. and Brown-Forman.
"There's nothing new about this finding," says Phyllis Ellickson, director of the Center for Research on Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health for the Rand Corporation. "It would be the logical thing to expect that, for most kids who are underage, the obvious sources of alcohol are those around them. Where else are kids going to get liquor but from friends and family if the system is working?"
Siblings, peers and parents' liquor cabinets -- even if the parents don't know it -- are all primary sources of access for kids, Ellickson says. Programs most successful programs at preventing alcohol and drug use among youths address this reality, he says.
"That's one of the reasons successful programs focus on helping kids identify pro-alcohol influences and learn how to resist them," he says. "It's a reaction to what's going on in their environment."
For the surveys, children ages 10 to 18 and adults, including 700 with children under age 18, responded through the Internet or by telephone.
Among the kids, only 1 percent of 10- to 12-year-olds reported drinking, compared with 23 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds and 35 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds..
Among those who did drink, 65 percent said they got alcoholic drinks from family and friends -- either from older siblings or friends, by taking it from their home or a friend's home without permission or by having parents who allowed them to drink.
From the parents' perspective, 53 percent agreed that friends and family were the main source of alcohol. However, Blackman says, the parents rarely took responsibility for kids' access to alcoholic beverages.
"They will acknowledge that it's somebody down the block, or a friend's parents," he says. "On an individual basis, it never starts at home."
When asked about other ways to get alcohol, parents and children had different responses. For instance, 7 percent of the children reported that they got alcohol from a store or bar that doesn't check ID's, while 18 percent of the parents thought that was a source for alcohol.
About 5 percent of the children reported getting liquor from a stranger, by asking someone to buy them beer, for instance, while 10 percent of the parents listed that as a means of access.
Only 3 percent of children reported successful use of fake ID's to get alcohol, but 19 percent of their parents blamed fake ID's for kids' access to alcohol.
The aim of the program was simply to raise parental awareness, Blackman says. He says parents need to "be a good role model in terms of their own consumption and behavior, identify bad behavior, like kids not getting up in the morning or having their grades slip, and supervise them."
More information
The Nemours Foundation provides more information on teens and alcohol. Teens who might be worried about having an alcohol problem can go to Alcoholics Anonymous for some help.
