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[quote=Anonymous]The biggest predicator of future alcohol use disorder is family history and age of first use - much more than trauma or anything else. The most important thing parents can do is model good behavior when it comes to alcohol. The parents drinking wine every night or getting sloshy on weekends - yeah, that kid is going to be primed to have a problem in college. Particularly if they've been letting the kid drink regularly as a teenager with a very undeveloped brain. But the teetotaler parents too need to recognize the prevalence of alcohol in society and prepare their kids accordingly. You don't want your kid's first experience with alcohol to be guzzling a bottle of vodka because they don't know any better.

So parents should educate their kids in context. If there is no history of alcohol abuse in the immediate biological family - parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents - absolutely let a 17 year old have a beer or glass of wine at family events. Just so they're familiar with what alcohol does. And they can contextualize when it is appropriate to drink in society. If non-drinking parents do so for religious or health reasons, I think they should still let their 17 year old have a beer or glass of wine just so they know what it is. Having complete freedom as a freshman coming from a restrictive household often means the kid wants to indulge in everything the day they set foot on campus.

But if there is a history of alcohol abuse in the immediate biological family, you should absolutely discourage your kid from drinking until they are 21 - and preferably 23, when the brain is more fully developed. And educate the kid why drinking at a young age is a terrible idea for someone with their genes. If they can make it to 23 or so, they should be absolutely fine having a glass of wine from time to time even if they have a terrible family history. Genes aren't always destiny. If you can let the brain develop normally before introducing alcohol, they should be ok. But introducing alcohol to a kid with a bad family history is almost always a bad idea.

So it depends on the context of the family.

On the upside, heavy drinking is way down among Gen Z. There is a lot less societal pressure to get trashed on alcohol compared to prior generations. At the better schools, they are pretty healthy and most don't like wasting weekends being hungover. Especially given the legal and widely available alternative of cannabis, which has changed things.

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