New York, Jan 9 (IANS): Parents can help their children shun drinking if they continue with communicating the risks of alcohol use even when their kids pass through adolescence, says a study.

Slackening the restrictive household rules against alcohol use that many parents tend to do may help advance the onset of alcohol use among their children, the findings showed.

"Parent's attitude affects a kid's attitude, and subsequently drinking in general," said psychologist Craig Colder from University at Buffalo, New York.

The rules slacken as children get older, the consequences of breaking those rules become less severe, and parents spend less time with their kids discussing alcohol use and its associated dangers.

"We found a correlation between the shifting of those three aspects of parenting and increases in alcohol use," Colder noted.

"The more rapid those declines, the more rapid the increase in the onset of alcohol use," Colder added.

The study used three annual assessments of parents and the target adolescent.

For the first assessment, the children were 10 or 11 years old, an age before most kids initiate drinking. Researchers asked questions about drinking and the family environment.

One year later, they were interviewed again, and then interviewed a third time after another year had passed.

The study was published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.