The third-graders were asked whether they had ever tasted a sip of beer, wine or any other alcohol, and whether an adult in their home had ever allowed them to do so. Approximately a third of the child participants reported sipping alcohol.
Moms were most likely to believe the forbidden-fruit argument — 1 in 3 mothers agreed that keeping alcohol from their kids would only make them want it more and that it would increase its “forbidden fruit” appeal. About 22% of moms thought that children who learn to sip alcohol at home would be better at resisting peer pressure to drink outside the home, and 26% believed that kids who try drinking with their parents will be less likely to experiment with alcohol in middle school. The researchers note, however, that it’s a mistake to think that kids’ drinking behaviors at home, under parental supervision, have any bearing on the way they drink with their friends — recent studies refute that notion.
In fact, there’s little evidence to suggest that early exposure to alcohol curbs drinking in adolescence. Rather, the opposite may be true. The authors cite previous research showing that, for example, fifth-grade children whose parents allowed them to have alcohol were twice as likely to report recent alcohol use in seventh grade. Another study found that sipping or tasting alcohol at age 10 predicted drinking by age 14, even after controlling for other psychological or social factors that could increase the risk of problem drinking.