Teens who drink with adult supervision have more drinking-related problems than their peers whose parents don’t allow them to drink.  Surprised?  This is the finding of a University of Washington study of 1,945 teens from grades 7-9 in the state of Washington and in Australia.  The researchers chose to include and compare American and Australian teens because the two countries have different attitudes about teens and drinking, ranging from zero tolerance to permissiveness.  As reported in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (May 2011), the researchers found that “providing opportunities for drinking in supervised contexts did not inhibit alcohol use or harmful use in either state.”

13-15 year olds are horrible indicators of teenagers as a whole when it comes to alcohol consumption. I would know because I take part in parties that involve alcohol from time to time so I have first hand experience. I have been to parties where the parents have been present and I personally believe that this is a much safer environment.  There is always an authoritative figure there to end the party when things get out of hand, someone to prohibit someone from drunk driving, etc. To survey “teens” between the grades of 7-9 is unfair to post and display this as a reputable survey for teens as a whole.