Restaurants in Germany legally sell alcohol to teenagers after
their sixteenth birthdays and French children drink wine with
dinner at an early age, but U.S. parents who follow this relaxed
European example, believing it fosters a healthier attitude
toward alcohol, should be careful — it may increase the
likelihood that their children binge drink in college. Research
conducted by Caitlin Abar, graduate student, human development
and family studies and member of Penn State’s Prevention
Research and Methodology Centers suggested that parents practice
a zero-tolerance policy in the home and said that there is no
scientific basis to the common belief that prohibiting alcohol
turns it into a “forbidden fruit” and encourages abuse. She
presented her results at the 2009 meeting of the Society for
Prevention Research, Washington, D.C. and they appear in the
current issue of Addictive Behaviors. In 31 states, parents can
legally serve alcohol to their underage children. Though U.S.
teenagers drink less often than adul