Parents must play their part in preventing underage drinking

As the festive season draws closer, communities and families are planning multiple social and traditional events.

Invariably, these events are characterised by an inordinate rate of alcohol consumption, particularly among young people.

As a practice, during this festive season, some families that have sent their boys to initiation school are pedantically preparing for their return, which includes organising gigantic ceremonies to celebrate the graduation of young boys into manhood.

These traditional ceremonies (Imigidi) are a hallmark of a broader spectrum of events that are organised by various families during the festive season.

It is a moment of great fervour and delight among family and community members to experience the incident-free passage of young men into manhood.

A significant element of the homecoming preparations is ensuring that there is an adequate amount of alcohol to entertain relatives and people that attend the ceremony.

Inevitably, a bigger proportion of the family’s budget is channelled towards buying adequate quantities of alcohol.

Quite often, success of the ceremony in meeting expectations of attendees is largely predicated on the enormous quantities of alcohol and the degree of inebriety, which can be the most threatening peril to the social fabric of the community.

The disproportionate abundance of alcohol at traditional ceremonies mirrors a petrifying picture of the extent to which alcohol has increasingly become a routine part of the social landscape for many in communities.

Our country is rated among as one of the countries with the highest rate of alcohol consumption, which is an illustration of the extent to which alcohol has become deeply entrenched into the social fabric of communities.

What is even more concerning is the reported increasing rate of alcohol consumption among people under the age of 18.

The extent of underage drinking is corroborated by Aware!org study results which show that 50% of teenagers in SA drink alcohol and that someone who starts drinking under the age of 18, which is illegal, is four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than someone who starts consuming booze after the age of 20.

According to the constitution, the national minimum legal age at which alcohol can be bought and consumed is 18 years.

Recent scientific reports show that young people start to experiment with alcohol at 13.

Similarly, many schools report rising cases of pupils who indulge in alcohol, in some instances bringing alcohol onto school premises.

It is important to highlight the fact that the initiation of alcohol use at a young age may increase the likelihood of alcohol dependence, and once teens begin drinking, many become regular consumers of alcohol.

Numerous reasons have been advanced on factors that induce alcohol consumption among underage people.

The most cited reasons include peer pressure, excessive pocket money, proximity of liquor outlets or alcohol accessibility and inadequate parental role.

I would like to address the last reason “inadequate parental role”, especially in view of the festive season that already looms large.

Perhaps a crucial question is: do parents play their role in preventing their children from experimenting with alcohol within the family setting, especially during the homecoming ceremonies or any family ceremony?

There is certainly no definite answer to this question.

A general observation is that during family ceremonies, some parents never take responsibility to ensure that their young or underage people do not indulge in alcohol.

Often in some families, underage people are left unsupervised and do as they please.

This abdication of responsibility results in a situation where every young person in the family has easy access to alcohol and can easily become inebriated.

In view of this blatant negligence, parents must partly share culpability for the swelling rate of alcohol use among young people.

This is due to their perceived failure to dissuade/supervise them against experimenting with alcohol but also failing to strictly control access especially during the family festivities.

The worst scenario is where parents recklessly indulge in alcohol in full view of their children, which may reinforce positive association with alcohol.

Scientific evidence shows that parents play a significant and powerful role in shaping their child’s beliefs and attitudes about alcohol, through their role-modelling.

Myriads of research studies show that there is a correlation between parents’ propensity to use alcohol and earlier use of alcohol by underage people, thus children are more likely to use alcohol if parents indiscreetly consume alcohol.

I am not oblivious to liquor traders who are noncompliant, particularly those who sell alcohol to the underaged persons.

One of the conditions attached to a liquor licence is that liquor traders must not sell alcohol to the underaged persons.

However, there are liquor traders who constantly violate this condition thereby exacerbating the scourge of underage drinking, particularly those who sell alcohol without valid liquor licences.

Nevertheless, liquor traders who contravene this specific condition are subjected to strict sanctions including potentially losing their licences.

That being said, the point I am seeking to accentuate is how parents have wittingly or unwittingly abdicated their responsibility of being role models to their children.

During family ceremonies, parents must know what their children do and supervise them closely to ensure that they do not indulge in alcohol.

Therefore, parents have their fair share of responsibility to dissuade or protect their children against the scourge of underage drinking, which poses a massive risk to our society.

While parents have a significant role to play in averting underage drinking, however, the broader community has an equal role to play to ensure that when young people mingle with the community, they are not exposed to alcohol.

As families celebrate the homecoming of their young men from initiation school, they correspondingly must ensure that traditional ceremonies do not become hotspots for alcohol abuse and expose adolescents to early initiation with alcohol use.

Dr Nombuyiselo Makala, Eastern Cape Liquor Board chief executive