Children in England are more likely to drink alcohol than other children around the world as middle-class parents have “normalised” harmful under-age drinking, a study has found.
One in three 11-year-olds and half of 13-year-olds in England have had alcohol — the highest rate of childhood drinking out of 44 countries examined by the World Health Organisation, in a report based on data from 280,000 children.
Children from wealthy households are the most likely to drink, with experts warning that they “mirror” the behaviour of affluent parents who indulge in frequent glasses of wine.
The study also looked at vaping, finding it was more common among children in the UK than in most other nations, including France, Germany, Spain and Canada.
Teenage girls in
