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Children hate alcohol's smell if
parents drink to escape
Children may become turned off to the smell of alcohol
when their parents drink to escape, according to a results of a new study. But it is not
clear whether this early response will translate into an aversion to alcohol as an
adolescent or adult. While studies reveal that alcoholism may run in families, there are
other factors that determine who is more likely to abuse alcohol, Dr. Julie A. Mennella,
told.
'It is important to emphasize that many children from
such families do not develop into alcoholics,' she said.
To investigate whether early experiences affect
children's feelings about alcohol, Mennella and co-author Pamela L. Garcia of the Monell
Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, asked 150 children to smell plastic
bottles scented with beer, bubble gum, sour milk and mineral oil.
The 3 to 6 year olds were told to hand the bottle to a
Big Bird toy if they liked the smell and to an Oscar the Grouch toy if they disliked the
smell. Parents were also interviewed about their use of alcohol. Results of the study,
published in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, show that
86% of children liked the bubble gum odor, 89% disliked the sour milk odor, and 53% liked
the beer odor.
The majority of children whose parents did not drink to
escape (66%) said they liked the smell of beer, compared with 27% of children with at
least one parent who said they drank to escape their problems. Similarly, 58% of children
whose mothers did not drink liked the smell compared with 28% of children whose mothers
drank.
According to Mennella, the results show that 'not only do
young children detect odor cues but process them differently in the context in which their
parents drink.' In other words, children identify the odor of alcohol as 'bad' if they
learn to associate it with the negative emotions they experienced when a parent drinks.
'The message children are giving us is quite powerful,' she said.
The authors note that the sense of smell in humans is
developed within days of birth. Studies have shown that odors can be charged with emotions
and that in adults, these emotions cannot be altered. 'This suggests that odors which
acquire specific meanings early in life have long-lasting responses,' the authors write.
The study supports previous research linking early
learning about alcohol to the emotional context in which parents drink. For example, very
young rats exposed to an intoxicated mother were more likely to reject textures that they
associated with the smell of alcohol. And preschoolers whose parents abuse alcohol are
more likely than their peers to identify alcohol by smell.
'That the emotional response to the scent of alcohol
conditioned during early childhood persists or explain behaviors during later childhood
and adolescence is an important area for future investigations,' the researchers conclude. |
