It is widely recognized that parents and peers play a critical role in the adolescent's introduction to alcohol.

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship of parental and peers drinking to adolescent drinking behavior.

A cross-sectional study was carried out in four colleges and schools in Sfax in Tunisia, in May and June 2016. The sample consisted of 317 pupils, and was determined through a simple randomized sampling. These adolescents were asked to answer a self-administered questionnaire, after their consent. Alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) was used to evaluate alcohol dependence.

The mean age was 16 years, with a sex-ratio of 1.07. The participants reported having drunk alcohol at least once in 18.9% of cases and 41.66% of them still consume. According to AUDIT, 1.6% of alcohol users presented an alcohol misuse and 21.6% presented dependence. They reported that parents’ attitude toward their alcohol use was favorable in 27.11% of cases. Among dependent adolescents, the prevalence of fathers’ alcohol consumption was 20% while that of friends was 70%. Adolescent drinking was significantly correlated to fathers, mothers and peers drinking (P < 0.001, P = 0.004, P < 0.001 respectively), mothers and peers smoking (P = 0.05, P < 0.001 respectively), fathers and peer's cannabis use (P < 0.001, P < 0.001 respectively).

Findings suggest that negative family and peers influence increased risk of alcohol consumption in adolescents. Understanding the influences on parents’ beliefs about their children's drinking and the functions of social networks in preventing alcohol consumption may be necessary to address adolescent risky drinking.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.