{"id":47498,"date":"2005-01-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-problem-drinking-starts-early\/"},"modified":"2005-01-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-01-24T00:00:00","slug":"research-shows-problem-drinking-starts-early","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-problem-drinking-starts-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Shows Problem Drinking Starts Early"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>University of Buffalo researchers surveyed the drinking habits of 2,200 Americans, and found that the younger their subjects were when they had their first drink, the more likely they were to abuse alcohol as adults.<\/p>\n\n<p>The scientists were even able to quantify the risk: for every year earlier that an adolescent starts imbibing, the chances of becoming a problem drinker increase 12 percent.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[310],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[410,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3380,3404,3405,3569,3677,3759,4112,4245,4379,4849,4912,5028],"tax_ctp_topics":[396],"class_list":["post-47498","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-alcohol","tax_ctp_tags-alcoholism","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-denominations","tax_ctp_tags-habits","tax_ctp_tags-influence","tax_ctp_tags-liquor","tax_ctp_tags-risk","tax_ctp_tags-self-control","tax_ctp_tags-sowing-reaping"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Research Shows Problem Drinking Starts Early - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/research-shows-problem-drinking-starts-early\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research Shows Problem Drinking Starts Early - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Buffalo researchers surveyed the drinking habits of 2,200 Americans, and found that the younger their subjects were when they had their first drink, the more likely they were to abuse alcohol as adults. 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