A new study says that parents who attempt (attempt being the keyword) to teach responsible drinking by allowing their teenagers to have alcohol at home are just plain wrong. The study of 428 Dutch families appears in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Researchers discovered that the more teenagers were permitted to drink at home, the more alcohol they consumed when they were away from home. The study also found that these teens had an increased risk of developing problems with alcohol. These problems include trouble with academics, absences from school and engaging in fights with others. The study questions the practice of parents drinking with their children hoping they will drink responsibly and reduce the amount of alcohol they use when not at home.

In the US nearly 5 college age individuals are killed from alcohol related injuries and children who start drinking by the 7th grade are more likely to have these academic and delinquent behavior problems in middle school and high school. It's statistics like these and many others that make alcoholism treatment centers shake their heads.

Parents show their children it's ok to drink before their bodies and minds can handle the effects of them could potentially setting them up for disaster as these studies show. The children do not learn their limits or consequences of not knowing their limits until it is too late. Alcoholism treatment centers have seen a rise in younger and younger abusers of alcohol because of this mythical belief that teaching them young that drinking is ok in the safety of the home.

That advice, of allowing the teens to drink at home to prevent irresponsible usage elsewhere is common in the Netherlands, but is based more on experts' reasoning than on scientific evidence, according to Dr. Haske van der Vorst, the lead researcher of the study. Based on this and earlier studies, van der Vorst says that he would "advise parents to prohibit their child from drinking, in any setting or on any occasion." And many alcoholism treatment centers would agree.