A family-based education programme reduces the number of children who start drinking alcohol at a young age, according to a new study.
It works by targeting the children's emotional response to being perceived as a "drinker", as well as their more objective intentions to drink alcohol, the study concludes.
Children who completed the programme at age 11 showed slower rates of alcohol uptake two years later, than those whose parents were simply given a pamphlet about ways of discouraging their child from drinking, said Prof Meg Gerrard from Iowa State University, yesterday at the European Health Psychology Conference at NUI, Galway.
"Most children have a relatively negative perception of the 'kind' of child that drinks alcohol but, at the same time, believes that other children think it's cool," said Prof Gerrard.
"The intervention uses group situations to get the children to talk about these perceptions and is designed to strengthen their negative perceptions of children that drink alcohol," she continued. "In the study, this directly reduced the children's willingness to drink and the amount that they drank at age 13."
Parents are encouraged to talk with their children about their expectations of behaviour, and the detrimental consequences of drinking. The implications for this type of intervention in Ireland would require further study, Prof Gerrard believes.
"The drinking culture is different here. The intervention may have to be tailored to encourage negative perceptions of people who drink to extremes, rather than . . . those who drink at all."