http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23579662/

Reuters
updated 4:59 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 11, 2008

A significant number of children are already drinking by middle school, suggesting that prevention needs to start in the elementary grades, researchers conclude in a new report.

In their study of more than 4,000 sixth-graders at Chicago schools, 17 percent of the children had used alcohol in the past year. Those students who'd started drinking were also more likely than their peers to have a range of problems, such as getting into fights, shoplifting or getting into trouble at school.

The findings, reported in the journal Health Education and Behavior, suggest that alcohol prevention needs to start in grade school, researchers say.

And such prevention efforts should include parents, according to lead researcher Dr. Keryn Pasch, of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.

One way to do that, she told Reuters Health, would be for school- based programs to include take-home assignments or other activities that involve parents.

The study included an ethnically diverse sample of sixth-graders at 61 Chicago schools; 713, or just over 17 percent, said they had drunk alcohol in the past year.

These children, Pasch and her colleagues found, were more likely than their peers to have a range of risk factors for early drinking — such as delinquent or violent behavior, a lack of adult supervision out of school, and having friends who drank alcohol.


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"I think it is important for parents to be aware that kids may start drinking at an early age, and that it is important to start discussions about alcohol use early," Pasch said.

One way to broach to topic, she suggested, is to look for "teachable moments," such as when drinking is portrayed on television.

It's also important, Pasch said, for parents to not only tell their children not to drink, but to also teach them how to refuse alcohol when it's offered to them.





*Waits for LW*

hm.

Not rly. "Tried alcohol" can mean just that.

I can attest to the fact that well over 17% of the kids in my 6th grade class consumed alcohol.

Yea Ohio!

are these the same kids getting STDs?

Alcohol prevention programs already start at an early age, they're just not that effective.



73% of them will throw a dog off a cliff at some point.

This is a dumb statistic.

Most certainly!!!

I think i tried alcohol when i was 6, just to feel the taste. And as some of you know, i dont drink.

And not doing their homework!

i love how we need to statistics like this and the STDs to alert us how fucked up society is. im not any more alarmed than i was a few days ago. this is a country that overwhelmingly believes that an old man with a white beard lives in the sky answering our prayers (not trying to go off topic)

I'm saying, bro!

I have two 2 uncles that call me "Uí" (sounds like Wii), since it was how i called whisky.

I was already smoking pot at that age...

i was selling it!

ok that's not true.

I'm sure kids do sell at that age though... that's the tragic part.

in the 6th grade i had yet to kiss a girl, sip a drink, or smoke anything. i did, however, pass A LOT of notes and had more girlfriends that year than any year since.

So you're saying nothings changed?






Ok that was a joke.

well, he told me he was a girl when we kissed...but thats a story for another time...

What's the criteria for "trying alcohol"? I think 95% of kids have a sip of beer or wine when their parents aren't in the room just out of curiosity.