ABSTRACT
Since the publication of Jahoda and Cramond's report in 1972, additional research into the development of young children's alcohol cognitions has been noticeably scarce. The assumption that children are innocent with regard to alcohol, and would therefore constitute a somewhat irrelevant area of study, has probably been the major barrier to investigation of this topic. Opinion, both then and now, remains heavily influenced by this belief. Parents, too, commonly assume ignorance on the part of their children (Fossey and Anderson, 1993). However, the findings of the present study suggest that in Britain a substantial number of children will have tasted alcohol well before their teenage years. While this apparent divergence between opinion and practice may in part be due to a generational shift in parental conduct with regard to alcohol and young children, it is more likely to be due to imprecise recollections of parents' own early experiences with alcohol. As has been remarked upon elsewhere in this book, personal accounts of the age at which initial contact with alcohol occurred tend to increase as a function of age.
