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In this thread on Parenting Stack Exchange, a comment was made:

it turned out that 'drinking with parents in moderation' increased the chances for alcoholism in later life.

Is there any basis to this claim?

Tom Bowen
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    Regarding notability: here's a respected Belgian newspaper claiming that "Teenagers that get offered alcohol by their parents binge drink significantly more often" http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20180125_03321791 – DonFusili Mar 14 '18 at 09:33
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    And here's the study that article (and echoes accross the Belgian landscape) was based on: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(17)30240-2/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr . I haven't got the time to read it through, though, so it might help someone write an answer. – DonFusili Mar 14 '18 at 09:35
  • @DonFusili That study test whether parents giving their young children alcohol affects the drinking behaviour of the children as teenagers not whether they have greater chance of being an alcoholic in later life. The harmful behaviours are much worse for those getting their booze from others than from their parents and it is less than obvious whether these carry forward to adulthood. – matt_black Mar 14 '18 at 12:36
  • @matt_black I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Am I wrong in saying that teenager is 'later life' or in saying that binge drinking is alcoholism? A correlation with parents giving alcohol to their children can be investigated. But as mentioned, I haven't read the lancet article, only the sensationalist headlines in the mainstream media. – DonFusili Mar 14 '18 at 13:07
  • @DonFusili "Later in life" should be defined in the research article, but in popular culture it tends to be accepted as at least ten years later. Binge drinking can be a sign of alcoholism, but it is contextual as well. A bunch of teenagers binge drinking at a party once a week is unlikely to be defined as alcoholism compared to someone drinking several drinks every night. – rjzii Mar 14 '18 at 13:45
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    Note that the study that @DonFusili linked to seems to be correlational/associational so it doesn't necessarily indicate causation. – paradisi Mar 14 '18 at 13:57
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    @sumelic Agreed, I only gave the study because it's the one the newspapers cited, which in turn were given because I think they showed the notability of the comment. I don't have beef with either outcome to the question, just saw it pop up and remembered reading something similar a while back. – DonFusili Mar 14 '18 at 14:01
  • The question you link to doesn't seem to contain your claim. – DJClayworth Mar 14 '18 at 14:35
  • @DJClayworth, you're right. The comment must have been deleted. – Tom Bowen Mar 14 '18 at 14:50
  • I recall a news story covering this a few months ago, not a clue where it originated though. Apple news, I think, so it could be any of a dozen publishers – Kevin Mar 14 '18 at 16:30
  • http://buffalonews.com/2018/02/24/harmless-or-not-when-parents-offer-kids-a-sip-of-alcohol/ ? – Kevin Mar 14 '18 at 16:32
  • @Tom.Bowen89 If you need another source for the question, [here](https://globalnews.ca/news/3923068/children-drink-alcohol/) is something notable (and unreferenced) that claims that giving kids small amounts of alcohol is a good thing. (I wouldn't remove the claim made on Parenting though.) – Laurel Mar 14 '18 at 16:51
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    Also the study that @DonFusili linked defines binge drinking as more then 4 standard drinks on any occasion during a 1 year period. Also the same study said that: Parental supply of alcohol was not significantly associated with the odds of reporting symptoms of either alcohol abuse or dependence, compared with no supply from any source. – Lyrion Mar 19 '18 at 12:41

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