A study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that children who experiment with alcohol before age 15 are more likely to develop alcohol dependency as adults.

NIAA researchers analyzed records of more than 22,000 young people and found that those who took a first drink before age 15 had more drinking problems later in life than did those who delayed experimenting with alcohol.

The findings may indicate that parents should not offer a child and even young adolescent an alcoholic beverage because it could act as "trigger" for a problem, especially among those who have a genetic predisposition toward addictions.

Labels: addiction, alcohol_abuse, teenage_drinking