Research finds children more likely to start using alcohol if they live near pubs and bars

A Deakin University study has found that Australian children are more likely to start using alcohol at a young age when they live in places with high numbers of hotels, pubs and bars.

The study recruited a state-representative sample of 2,547 Grade 5, 7 and 9 students (average age 13 years) from across Victoria and resurveyed them one year later. The results showed a 17 per cent rise in the odds that children would begin using alcohol for every 10 per cent increase in alcohol outlets, after accounting for other influences such as age, prior alcohol use, and smoking status.

With Christmas fast approaching, the results of the study are a sober reminder to parents and the wider community to be mindful of children’s exposure to alcohol, said Dr Bosco Rowland, a senior research fellow with Deakin’s School of Psychology who completed the study as part of his Alfred Deakin Research Fellowship.

“This time of year Christmas celebrations are common in hotels, pubs and clubs. We need to be careful of the message these celebrations send to our children,” Dr Rowland said

“The National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines are clear that children should not drink before the age of 18.

“These guidelines recognise that the earlier a young person starts drinking alcohol the more likely they are to experience injuries and harms, poor academic outcomes, and impaired brain development. In the long-term there is an increased risk of a variety of cancers and diseases and a greater chance the child will drink at harmful levels in adulthood.

“While progress is being made in encouraging children to avoid alcohol before the age of 18, underage drinking continues to be an important problem in Australia with the most recent 2011 national school survey showing 59 per cent of 17 year olds regularly using alcohol each month.”

The current study used data collected as the Victorian component of the International Youth Development Study, an ongoing, longitudinal study of youth behaviours in Victoria, Australia and Washington in the US. The findings demonstrated that a higher density of alcohol outlets in the local community was a risk factor that increased the proportion of adolescents who consume alcohol.

The study also showed that as age increased so did the likelihood that a child reported alcohol use in the last year.  It was also found that children living in rural areas were twice as likely to report drinking alcohol in the last year, compared to non-rural children.

“Our previous Deakin study found that parents were more likely to supply alcohol to their underage children when they lived near multiple alcohol sales outlets,” said John Toumbourou, Deakin Professor of Health Psychology and study co-author.

“Part of the problem in Victoria is that venues are allowed to sell alcohol to underage children if they are with parents and carers and served food,” Professor Toumbourou said.

“The study findings raise the question as to why the Victorian Minister for Liquor Regulation, Jane Garrett, is the only state Minister allowing alcohol sales to underage children.”

The study ‘The density of alcohol outlets and adolescent alcohol consumption: An Australian longitudinal analysis’ is published in the journal Health & Place and can be viewed here http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829215001513