Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
29/01/2013
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Youth with companies who drink are twice as likely to consume alcohol.
Study with young people aged 14 to 17 years was made by American university.
Influence of friends who drink is the main factor
initiation, believes expert (Photo: TV Globo)
A study conducted by the University of Iowa in the United States, measured the influence of "best friends" in the initiation of adolescent alcohol.
The research, published in the journal "Pediatrics," reveals that young people whose best friend consume alcohol have twice the risk of tasting the first sip and can be up to three times more likely to begin drinking regularly.
"Even children who come from families that have problems with alcohol did not receive their first drink of their families. They receive the first shots of their friends," says Samuel Kuperman, a study author and psychiatrist for children and adolescents at the University of Iowa.
The study was based on data extracted from a group of 820 adolescents from six locations in the United States. Participants were between 14 and 17 years - an average of 15.5 years, almost identical to the typical age at which the first contact with alcohol, according to previous surveys.
Indicators
Kuperman and his team established five key indicators that lead adolescents to drink, based on previous research and reports from American institutes dedicated to the subject. They are: disruptive behavior, family history of alcohol dependence, low sociability, and the company of friends who drink.
The researchers then looked at how these five variables worked together and found that "having a best friend who drinks or has access to alcoholic beverages" was the most important factor involved in the initiation of young people.
Young people who begin drinking before age 15
are more at risk to abuse alcohol or become
dependents after (Photo: Toru Hanai / Reuters) "
The family history does not necessarily determine the age of first use, "says Kuperman, who studies adolescent initiation into alcohol for more than a decade.
"What determines is access. At this age (14 or 15), this factor outweighs all others. As we age, family history plays a bigger role," says Kuperman.
According to scientists, the study reinforces the finding that young people who start drinking before completing 15 years are more likely to abuse alcohol or become dependent later.
More than eight in ten respondents came from that researchers consider "high-risk families," though more than half of them had not dependent parents. Among adolescents who reported having consumed beverages, nearly four in ten said their best friends also drank.
The research was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the country.
Source: G1 - News - The Well
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.