How many times have we heard — or even joked ourselves, “You kids are driving me to drink!” There are wines geared toward parents and even playgroups for happy hour. Some wonder if these habits and groups might cause your kids to drink more.
Turns out, though, that our own drinking habits aren’t the only thing that influences our kids to drink later on in life. Our actual parenting style influences whether our children will be binge drinkers later on in life.
Parents that are more strict until their children are 16 and show parental warmth until the age of 10, are less likely to become binge drinkers.
Approximately 30,000 families were studied over the course of 40 years.
The study does also show that parents who are too authoritative can also contribute to a child’s drinking, though it is a fine balance between tough love and being too strict.
As children get older, the influence seems to be greater. Bad parenting at age 10 seems to make children grow to be twice as likely to drink heavily at age 30. Stricter parenting around the teen years seems to have the most positive outcome.
Do you parent with tough love? Do you see your parenting style affecting other aspects of your child’s life in the future?
