Do you think that letting teens drink at home teaches them how to become responsible drinkers? Think again, say researchers at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
The team of researchers monitored the drinking habits of 283 teenagers, first determining the age of their first drink, and then assessing their drinking behavior—how often they drank, how much and if they engaged in binge drinking–at ages 19, 22 and 23 years.
Their findings? The earlier someone starts drinking, the greater the risk of becoming an alcoholic. People who started drinking during puberty—ages 12 to 14–seemed to have the highest risk.
This has to do with the fact that during puberty, the brain’s reward system is developing, and “the brain is in a highly vulnerable state for any kind of reward, and drug rewards in particular,” according to Rainer Spanagel, one of the study’s leading authors.
The research suggests that intervention and education should be directed at girls and boys in this vulnerable age window.
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