Recent studies have shown that the sooner kids begin drinking, the greater the chance they will develop alcoholism. Teenage experimentation with liquor doesn't inevitably lead to later drinking problems, but parents should watch for warning signs, such as a new set of friends whom the child never brings home. Other signals include being unusually argumentative, testy, or sad, or losing motivation in school, even if grades remain good. Children like Nicole have the deck stacked against them. Nicole has never met her father, and her mother is an alcoholic in treatment as a condition of retaining custody.
Children of alcoholics are from two to four times more likely to develop the disease.
The genetic underpinnings of alcoholism are not well understood, but one contributor is the body's inherited ability to make a liver enzyme that is good at metabolizing alcohol. A high enzyme level gives even young people the ability to drink their peers under the table. Growing up in an alcoholic family seems to play a role apart from genes. Nicole was used to seeing her mother drink with roommates and friends. Calif. Even in families without a legacy of alcoholism, starting to drink later seems to better the odds of avoiding addiction.