All those T-shirts, hats and other items promoting alcoholic beverages that young people wear may be more than just a fashion statement.   Teens who own such merchandise are more likely to start drinking and become binge drinkers, a new study contends.
The Dartmouth scientists who did the research said this is the first study directly linking alcohol-branded merchandise to adolescent drinking and outcomes such as binge drinking that can result in illness and death. In addition, the data provide evidence that this merchandise promotes teen drinking and could be a basis for enacting policies to restrict this alcohol-marketing practice, the researchers said.
“About 3 million adolescents in the United States own alcohol-branded merchandise,” said lead researcher Dr. Auden C. McClure, a pediatrician at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, N.H. “Ownership of these items is associated with susceptibility to alcohol use and binge drinking,” she added.
These items serve as a marker for adolescents who drink, McClure said. “But it is also a direct link with susceptibility and initiation to drinking,” she said. “You can’t say any longer that these items are just a marker of kids who drink.”

Source:Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.  arch 2009