Is heavy drinking as a teen GOOD for you? Youngsters who booze with their friends go on to earn more as adults, controversial study claims

It's a rite of passage that's regularly frowned upon – but drinking with friends in your late teens could boost career prospects, a controversial study claims.

Experts have discovered that those who take part in communal binges as youngsters go on to earn more money later in life.

Despite a raft of evidence citing the perils of binge drinking, a new study suggests there are some benefits to enjoying alcohol.

But specialists have urged caution over the findings – warning that even small amounts of alcohol can have significant negative effects on health.

As part of a study, Willy Pedersen, a sociology professor at the University of Oslo, tracked the drinking habits of more than 3,000 Norwegians aged 13 to 31 for 18 years.

Analysis revealed those who started regularly binge drinking in their late teens and 20s were later found to have higher levels of education and income compared to those who abstained or drank very little.

'The statistical findings are quite strong, so clearly significant,' Professor Pedersen told The Times.

'The most likely explanation is that all alcohol is a kind of marker of sociality and that habit comes with some types of benefits.'

In his book, The Beauty and Pain of Drugs, Professor Pedersen points to the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University as an example.

The private all–male institution is known for its raucous behaviour and has a long history of excessive drinking.

However, it has also produced three former prime ministers, including Boris Johnson.

It is possible that young people who are already on promising career paths and who come from wealthy backgrounds are more willing and able to drink in excess.

But Professor Pedersen says he believes alcohol also makes people more sociable and open to networking.

In a column titled 'Those who drink the most will earn the most', published last month in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, he wrote: 'Alcohol has major harmful effects, but it also brings joy.

'Alcohol intoxication can make us "lower our guard", and that can be useful in many areas of life.'

He explained that drinking can help students integrate into communities at universities, while previous studies have shown drinking wine with dinner can be useful in business.

However, he also acknowledged that alcohol use has a 'staggering cost' including traffic accidents, violence, an increased risk of liver and cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer and depression'. 

'There is no lower limit for "safe use" and the risk increases with the amount of consumption,' he added.

He also warned there is no evidence alcoholism itself is a sensible career strategy, and discouraged people from drinking on their own.

Commenting on the study Paolo Deluca, professor of addiction research at King's College London, told the Daily Mail: 'In Norway, as in many other countries, socioeconomic status remains one of the strongest predictors of future success, making it likely that the reported association between heavy drinking and later achievement reflects differences in wealth and opportunity, rather than the social effects of alcohol itself.

'Taken together, these findings suggest that any apparent "benefit" of youthful binge drinking is more plausibly a reflection of privilege and social context, not a positive causal effect of alcohol.

'Moreover, binge drinking remains linked to increased risks of accidents, injuries, and mental health harms, which far outweigh any speculative networking advantages.'

Psychotherapist Fiona Yassin has previously warned of the dangers of teens drinking too much when they go to university, saying: 'Young people might drink to feel involved and motivated, but then feel horrible because of the alcohol and end up stuck in their room, and the fear that they’d be lonely becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.'

She told parents to look out for signs their child is over-indulging, including a change in weight, ploughing through their money and increased anxiousness.  

She also warned that teenage binge drinking can impact friendships, make youngsters become more verbally aggressive and make them appear more dishevelled.   

Meanwhile, experts have warned that one in three children in England have now tried alcohol by the age of just 11.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) commissioned report revealed that England has the highest rate of childhood drinking across 44 countries. 

Health chiefs warned middle-class parents who normalise alcohol are party responsible for soaring rates of under-age drinking, and said more must be done to protect youngsters. 

Dr Katherine Severi, chief executive of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: 'People tend to have this perception that introducing children to moderate drinking is a good way of teaching them safer drinking habits.

'This is untrue. The earlier a child drinks, the more likely they are to develop problems with alcohol in later life.

'A pro-alcohol environment leads to the normalisation of drinking and "cultural blindness" to alcohol harm among children. That's true even with moderate parental drinking. 

'And as more affluent people tend to drink more, this normalisation will be especially true, which is likely why we see higher rates of drinking in children from affluent families.'