|
 The good news for parents is that few kids drink or smoke by age 11,
the study found.
But kids who experienced the death or absence of a biological parent
by age 7 were more than twice as likely to smoke and almost 50
percent as likely to drink by age 11 as their peers still living
with both parents.
“We know from previous studies that people who experienced parental
absence in childhood are more likely to smoke and/or drink in
adulthood,” said lead study author Dr. Rebecca Lacey of the
University College London.
“These findings suggest that the uptake of risky health behaviors
may be occurring earlier in life than we previously thought,” Lacey
added by email.
For the current study, researchers examined data on 10,940 children
born in the U.K. from September 2000 to January 2002.
Children and their families were surveyed when children were 9
months old, and again at 3, 5, 7 and 11 years. During the last
survey, researchers asked kids directly if they had ever smoked a
cigarette, had an alcoholic drink or consumed enough to feel drunk.
Overall, 29 percent of boys and 28 percent of girls had a parental
absence by age 7, researchers report in the Archives of Disease in
Childhood.
Slightly more than half of the kids who experienced this absence had
the parent die or leave by the time they were 3 years old. Nearly
all of the absent parents were fathers.
By the time kids were 11 years old, 15 percent of boys and 11
percent of girls said they had tried alcohol, while 12 percent of
boys and 7 percent of girls reported feeling drunk at least once.
Kids with an absent parent were more than twice as likely to report
drinking to excess than other children.
Very few kids had a parent die early in their childhood. Compared to
children who had a parent absent for other reasons, however, kids
who experienced the death of a parent and who reported drinking were
more than 12 times as likely to report having consumed enough to
feel drunk.
[to top of second column] |
One limitation of the study is that researchers didn’t look at
parental deaths or departures after age 7, making it impossible to
see how an absence that started between ages 7 and 11 might
influence risk behaviors, the authors note.
Even so, the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting
that family structures and dynamics can influence whether kids
develop substance abuse issues, said Suzannah Creech, a psychology
researcher at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the
Veterans Health Administration in Waco, Texas.
When a parental absence does happen, there are still things the
remaining parents and caregivers can do to help minimize the odds
that children will drink or smoke, Creech, who wasn’t involved in
the study, said by email.
“Children can be profoundly resilient to life stressors when they
also have a positive and consistent attachment figure such as a
parent, grandparent or older sibling,” Creech said. “Making sure
children's basic needs are met and that they have a positive
relationship with an attachment figure can be protective factors.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2dMIxtj Archives of Disease in Childhood,
online October 10, 2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
