Teenagers given alcohol by their parents are twice as likely to binge at a young age, researchers have found.
Many parents believe giving their children sips of wine or beer at the dinner table will teach them to drink responsibly.
But a six-year study of nearly 2,000 families has revealed this is a myth.
Adolescents who are introduced to alcohol by their parents are twice as likely to seek out other sources of alcohol within a year, according to the findings published in the Lancet Public Health journal.
They are also 2.6 times as likely to binge – defined as having four drinks in a single sitting – before the age of 18.
And they are 2.5 times as likely to come to harm as a result of their drinking, the Australian researchers found.
Adolescents who are introduced to alcohol by their parents are twice as likely to seek out other sources of alcohol within a year
Study leader Professor Richard Mattick of the University of New South Wales, whose team tracked a 1,927 teenagers from the age of 12 to 17, said: ‘This practice by parents is intended to protect teenagers from the harms of heavy drinking by introducing them to alcohol carefully, however the evidence behind this has been limited.
‘Our study is the first to analyse parental supply of alcohol and its effects in detail in the long term, and finds that it is, in fact, associated with risks when compared to teenagers not given alcohol.
‘Alcohol consumption leads to harm, no matter how it is supplied.
‘We advise that parents should avoid supplying alcohol to their teenagers if they wish to reduce their risk of alcohol-related harms.’
Separate research published last month by University College London found one in six parents in Britain offer their children alcohol before the age of 14.
And British middle-class parents are the most likely to have a liberal attitude to alcohol, with those with high education and stable jobs up to 43 per cent more likely to allow their child to drink before the age of 14 than those who are uneducated and unemployed.
For the Australian study, the researchers found 15 per cent had been given alcohol by their parents at the start of study, when they were aged 12, a figure that rose to 57 per cent by the time they turned 18.
Some 19 per cent had tried alcohol at all – getting it from any source – when they were 12, while 79 per cent had drunk before their 18th birthday.
Professor Mattick added: ‘While governments focus on prevention through school-based education and enforcement of legislation on legal age for buying and drinking alcohol, parents go largely unnoticed.’
British alcohol experts welcomed the study.
Dr Ruth McGovern of Newcastle University, said: ‘Parents should be advised that the safest approach is not to supply alcohol to children below the legal purchase age.’
Dr James Nicholls of Alcohol Research UK, said: ‘This study adds to the evidence that parental supply of alcohol to children is, by itself, unlikely to prevent later harms.
‘Predictably, it finds that children who have no access to alcohol experience the least alcohol-related problems.’