Research: Children Get Scared When Parents Are Drunk

A recent study in the United Kingdom reports that children get scared when watching their parents drink. BBC researchers questioned over a thousand children and young teens in the UK to find out how watching adults drink (and get drunk) made them feel

According to the study:

• Half of the children surveyed had seen their parents drunk at least once and three quarters had witnessed their parents drinking alcohol
• 30% of the children surveyed said that they felt scared when watching a parent drink and nearly half of those surveyed said that they thought that adults shouldn’t drink in front of children.
• 80% of the children who had seen their parents drinking said that they noticed a change in behavior that occurred with alcohol consumption, with 20% saying that alcohol made their parents loud and aggressive and a further 17% saying that alcohol caused their parents to become dizzy and fall over
• 3% of the children surveyed said that they saw a parent get drunk several times a week
• 60% of the children asked said that they planned on drinking alcohol when they got older.

Rosemary Duff, the research director of BBC’s Childwise program said that the results of the study reveal how ingrained binge drinking has become in the UK.