A systematic review of children's alcohol-related knowledge, attitudes and expectancies

Abstract

Understanding the nature of, and transitions in, young children's alcohol-related knowledge and attitudes is important to determining the age at which we should start educating children about alcohol and informing our understanding of the focus of such education. This paper aimed to explore current literature on the alcohol-related knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and expectancies of children aged 12years and under. Electronic databases were searched for papers published from January 2000-August 2016. Further papers were identified by a manual review of reference lists, and contacting corresponding authors of included papers. Papers that reported on children's knowledge or beliefs about alcohol, attitudes towards alcohol and/or expectancies regarding alcohol consumption were included. Seventeen cross-sectional, experimental or observational studies and seven longitudinal studies met the inclusion criteria. Data on key measures was tabulated. From a very young age children are aware of and able to identify alcohol, and have some knowledge of its effects; their attitudes become more positive with increasing age and these shifts appear to precede drinking initiation by some years. The small number of available studies, with different measures of knowledge, attitudes and expectancies, made assessment of bias unfeasible. Only three studies were published in the last five years. Children's knowledge of, and attitudes towards, alcohol form before they initiate alcohol use, and are likely acquired through observation. Alcohol-related education should commence before children begin drinking, and should encourage the delay of alcohol initiation, address social norms, and reduce positive expectancies.

Exposure to Parental Alcohol Use Rather Than Parental Drinking Shapes Offspring's Alcohol Expectancies

“…Available studies have shown that children as young as 6 years develop AE (Mares et al., ; Pieters et al., ). Moreover, recent studies have shown that children as young as age 3 already have some ideas about the positive (e.g., joyful, relaxed) and negative (e.g., angry, sad) emotional changes that occur when adults drink (Jones and Gordon, ; Kuntsche, ; Kuntsche and Kuntsche, ). Thus, young children already have some understanding of the valence of the effects (positive vs. negative) caused by alcohol (Kuntsche, ).…”

“…When children grow into adolescence, they develop stronger positive AE and weaker negative AE (Jones and Gordon, ; Smit et al., ). It is evident that positive AE are more consistent predictors of alcohol use initiation and subsequent excessive alcohol use (Smit et al., ).…”

Exploring the Trajectory and Prevention of Alcohol Use Among Young People from the Perspective of Professional Youth Workers

“…For children 11 years and younger, delaying alcohol initiation may be an effective way to prevent alcohol-related problems for young people. Delay of alcohol initiation may be achieved with interventions to advocate for children to abstain from alcohol, including sips from others' drinks; reduce positive expectations for alcohol use; and reinforce positive expectations for alcohol abstinence rather than increasing negative alcohol expectations ( Jones & Gordon, 2017 ). There is a view that exposing young people to alcohol will help them learn to drink responsibly.…”

Pervasive, hard-wired and male: Qualitative study of how UK adolescents view alcohol-related aggression

“…It is tempting to also link our findings to expectancy research [ 38 ]. Alcohol expectancies seem to be socially learned in young people [ 39 ], but little is known about how alcohol-related aggression expectancies develop. Our findings show it is feasible that alcohol aggression expectancies are partly socially-learned.…”