The report prepared by Cancer Council Victoria for the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care surveyed more than 11,000 students in years 7 to 12 in 2022-23 and found underage drinking had hit historic lows.
Secondary school students are drinking alcohol at the lowest rates in history.
Just 64.8 per cent of students aged 12 to 17 reported ever trying alcohol – a slight decrease from 2017 when the study was last conducted – while risky drinking among students aged 16 to 17 decreased from 10.8 per cent in 2017 to 8.8 per cent in 2022-23.
In 2002,four out of five secondary students reported ever trying alcohol,while more than one in 10 reported risky drinking.
Meanwhile,the proportion of children who have had alcohol supplied by their parents is trending upward,from 43 per cent in 2017 to 47 per cent in 2022-23.
The director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia,Paul Dillon,said parents sometimes struggled to understand that Australia’s alcohol culture was changing among younger generations.
“I think parents believe that,if they provide the alcohol,it somehow provides an element of safety,” he said.
This may be because parents consider their own underage experiences of buying alcohol from someone and drinking it in the park and think it’s safer if it comes from them.
Others may believe in the so-called Mediterranean model of introducing small quantities of alcohol with a meal and under parental supervision,although Dillon said there was no evidence to show this model worked in Australia.
A from UNSW’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found that adults supplying sips of alcohol to their children was associated with increased odds of binge-drinking.
“If you provided alcohol to your child,your child was likely to drink more … and parental supply is associated with increased risk of other supply,not the reverse. It’s not protective,” Dillon said.
The most common type of alcohol drunk among all students who had tried alcohol was premixed spirits at 41.7 per cent,followed by spirits at 20.6 per cent.
Among current drinkers,54 per cent said they’d experienced at least one negative outcome after drinking in the past year. Nearly one-third said they had vomited,and nearly a quarter said they had done something they had later regretted.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation’s knowledge manager Robert Taylor said delaying drinking alcohol among younger people could help to reduce the risk of current and future harm.
“We also know that the earlier a young person starts drinking,and the more frequently they drink,the more likely they are to experience alcohol-related harms such as accidents or injuries or develop an alcohol dependence later in life,” he said.
“Parents can also role-model positive behaviours by showing their children that they can have fun and relax without alcohol. When kids know they can socialise without alcohol,they can grow up to make healthier choices about drinking.”
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