Smoking, Drinking Learned Early

Study: Kids Start Forming Perceptions About Them At Young Ages

(CBS)  Parents may not realize it, but children begin forming attitudes about drinking and smoking when they're still very young, a new study finds.

CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski visited Dartmouth Medical School, where the study was conducted.

She observed as pre-schoolers took part in an exercise that looked like fun and games. But researchers watched closely as the youngsters made choices.

Their assignment: a shopping trip for Ken and Barbie's big evening out.

Some of the selections by the kids, like cookies and ice cream, were cute, Brzezinski reports.

But some, she says, weren't so cute, such as when one child asked, "Where's the beer, beer, beer?"

"The percentage of kids who bought cigarettes and alcohol was amazing to me," says Madeline Dalton of Darmouth Med School.

She conducted the research, and says it was the first study of attitudes toward alcohol and smoking in very young children.

Julie Gadapee's six-year-old son, Alexander, not only knew that an item he was asked about was a package of cigarettes, he knew the brand name, Marlboro.

"I was surprised he was able to pick out Marlboro cigarettes," his mother says.

It turns out Julie smokes Marlboros.

Brzezinski reports that 62 percent of the children purchased alcohol at the play store, 28 percent bought cigarettes, and 24 percent bought both.

Researchers say there's no question that very young children are getting the message, not just from marketers and movies, but first, from mom and dad.

One child wanted beer to take to a movie.

In other role-playing scenarios, a five-year-old girl poured wine for dolls. Later, she poured a little more, saying, "another half a glass."

"One volunteer who watched the video speculates the child got it "right out of her mother's mouth. I don't know where else she would have gotten that one. It's pretty funny."

Funny, says Brzezinski, and a little scary, too.

The study concludes children as young as three are making a connection between adult "fun," and smoking and drinking.

The advice from the researchers: Since kids are thinking about it, parents should be talking with them about it, too.