Actress Anne Hathaway grabbed headlines recently with a somewhat unorthodox parenting strategy: she revealed she has given up alcohol until her two-year-old son turns 18 because she does not want him to see her drunk.
Hathaway’s approach might seem puritanical to anyone who’s no longer in their twenties, but for Generation Z it’s the new normal. According to the Institute of Alcohol Studies, only 38 per cent of 11 to 15 year-olds have even tried alcohol, let alone gotten drunk.
So why has drinking fallen so rapidly out of favour? To those who inherited the social freedoms of the 60s and rebelled against the stiff upper lips of their parents it seems utterly bizarre that young people would shun drink and embrace sobriety. But today’s teenagers are exhibiting exactly the same spirit of teenage rebellion as the post-war generations: it’s just their focus has changed.
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