According to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, parents who try to teach responsible drinking to their children by letting them drink at home may be setting their teens up for all kinds of alcohol related problems later in life.

The study included 428 families with two children between the ages of 13 and 15. Parents and teens completed questionnaires on drinking habits at the outset and again one and two years later.

The researchers found that, in general, the more teens drank at home, the more they tended to drink elsewhere; the reverse was also true, with out-of-home drinking leading to more drinking at home. In addition, teens who drank more often, whether in or out of the home, tended to score higher on a measure of problem drinking two years later.

The findings, according to lead author Dr. Haske van der Vorst, suggest that teen drinking begets more drinking -- and, in some cases, alcohol problems -- regardless of where and with whom they drink. Drinking problems included trouble with school work, missed school days and getting into fights with other people, among other issues.

The findings call into question the advice of some experts who recommend that parents drink with their teenage children to teach them how to drink responsibly -- with the aim of limiting their drinking outside of the home. The advice is common in the Netherlands, where the study was conducted, but it is based more on experts' reasoning than on scientific evidence, according to van der Vorst.

"The idea is generally based on common sense," says van der Vorst, of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. "For example, the thinking is that if parents show good behavior -- here, modest drinking -- then the child will copy it. Another assumption is that parents can control their child's drinking by drinking with the child."

But the current findings suggest that is not the case. Based on this and earlier studies, van der Vorst says, "I would advise parents to prohibit their child from drinking, in any setting or on any occasion."

"If parents want to reduce the risk that their child will become a heavy drinker or problem drinker in adolescence," she says, "they should try to postpone the age at which their child starts drinking."

Citation: van der Vorst, H., Engels, R. C. M. E.,  Burk, W. J. 'Do parents and best friends influence the normative increase in adolescents' alcohol use at home and outside the home?', Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 71 (1), 105-114