Significantly, the children of problem drinkers have more problems than children of non-problem drinkers. At age 15 young people who have a parent with an alcohol problem have a higher risk of psychiatric disorder and heavy drinkers themselves are twice as likely to have had a parent with an alcohol problem than the population in general. However, Velleman and Orford in their study of how young people cope with parental drinking, suggest that resilience depends on multiple factors including the adolescent s personality, the presence of a harmonious family environment and the existence of a strong external support system such as school, church or other important adults. They found that family disharmony leading to childhood difficulties was a more influential factor than the fact of having a parent with a drinking problem. Types of drink.
Many young people drink more than one kind of drink and what young people drink is changing.
In the same timescale, figures show that young people are now drinking more wine, fortified wine and shandy. It is also the case that many young people are choosing stronger brands. Figures show that it is possible for young people to purchase alcohol. The most common place for young people to buy alcohol is from an off-licence. The recent government white paper on licensing laws proposes a number of ways of tackling this issue.