Teenagers Receive First Drink from Friends

Friends and their alcohol use can predict whether a teenager will try alcohol or not, researchers say. Apart from this, researchers also found that friends influence the timing of a teen's first drink and his/her chances of alcohol consumption later in life.

Researchers from the University of Iowa (UI) found youngsters mostly getting their first drink from their friends, and those who first try alcohol through a friend are at higher risks of consuming alcohol later in life.

"When you start drinking, even with kids who come from alcoholic families, they don't get their first drinks from their family," Samuel Kuperman, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the UI, said in a news release. "They get their first drinks from their friends. They have to be able to get it. If they have friends who have alcohol, then it's easier for them to have that first drink."

For the study, Kuperman and colleagues included 820 adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years. The majority of the participants were from low-risk families.

Researchers found some factors predicting a teen's drinking behavior - family history of alcohol reliance, person with poor social skills, disruptive behavior and friends. Among all these factors, investigators found that having friends who drink or who can easily access alcohol, predicts future alcohol consumption more accurately than the others. They found teens having a best friend with the drinking habit at double risks of having a first drink through them.

"There's something driving kids to drink," Kuperman, corresponding author on the paper, explained. "Maybe it's the coolness factor or some mystique about it. So, we're trying to educate kids about the risks associated with drinking and give them alternatives."

The findings of the study have been published in Pediatrics.