The call follows research highlighting the impact parents’ drinking habits can have on children.
The study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that teenagers who had seen their parents drunk are twice as likely to get drunk repeatedly themselves compared to those who had never seen their parents drunk.
Researchers also found that parental supervision played an important role – the odds of children drinking are greater if their parents don’t know where they are on a Saturday night or if they are allowed to watch 18-rated films without supervision.
Drinkaware said that despite pressures resulting from reduced budgets, efforts to help young people develop a healthy relationship with alcohol must not be abandoned.
"Helping young people to develop a healthy relationship with alcohol requires an integrated approach, including schools as educators, parents as role models and the community as providers of positive alternatives to drinking," said Drinkaware chief executive Chris Sorek.
"Schools are facing tough choices about how to spend reduced budgets, but as today’s report suggests, they have a key role in providing both children and parents with the facts about alcohol – both at primary and secondary level," Sorek added.
According to the study, which surveyed 5,700 schoolchildren in Years 9 (aged 13 to 14) and 11 (aged 15 to 16), 70 per cent of Year 9 pupils and 89 per cent of Year 11 students have had an alcoholic drink.
Among those who had, 20 per cent of those in Year 9 drink every week with the figure rising to 39 per cent among Year 11 students.
