NEARLY one in three children – around 330,000 in total – under the age of 16 in Scotland lives with a binge-drinking parent, according to alcohol campaigners.

The figures coincide with the launch of a new campaign by Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS) and the charity Children 1st to raise awareness of the impact adult drinking has on children.

A major conference today in Edinburgh will hear 30% of Scottish children live with at least one binge-drinking parent, and that problems caused by even relatively moderate levels of drinking are not being taken seriously enough.

Under definitions used by the UK Government, a binge drinker is defined as anyone who regularly drinks more than twice the recommended daily limit of three alcohol units for women (one and a half pints of 4% strength lager) and four units (less than two pints) for a man.

In a survey of 500 children carried out with Young Scot, AFS found half had been embarrassed by an adult’s drinking, a quarter said a family event had been affected by drunkenness, and a third had been worried about how much an adult they cared about was drinking.

Drawing from studies carried out by agencies such as Childline, AFS says one in three children feel scared when they see an adult drunk. When children ring the agency because they are concerned about the health of a significant person in their lives, alcohol is the top reason for that concern.

Chief executive Dr Evelyn Gillan said: “We are all drinking too much and this has become so normal and acceptable that the problems it causes to other people, particularly children, are often overlooked.”

She said that while the consequences for children could be severe, most young people could do little to protect themselves from the direct or indirect consequences of parental drinking.

“We are not talking about dependent alcoholics here, but people who binge-drink regularly. Half of men and a third of women report regularly drinking over the recommended limits. These are not small numbers.

“We expect people to drink in Scotland and are not surprised if people are drinking to excess.

“We need to stop colluding with the notion that excessive drinking is something we all do as an antidote to stress and that it is a bit of fun. Actually children are telling us there are a number of more negative consequences.”

One of the keynote speakers at today’s conference is Prof-essor Robin Room of the Australian Centre for Alcohol Policy Research in Victoria. He will discuss research he has carried out into the range of harm caused to people in Australia by the drinking of others.

Dr Gillan said there was a case for similar research in Scotland. “Our campaign aims to reach the general public, health professionals and other practitioners. We will also meet with politicians from all the parties to get them thinking about whether Scotland should be doing something similar,” she said.

Edinburgh University Research Fellow Louise Hill, who is investigating children’s experiences, will also address the conference.

She said the Scottish Government’s Hidden Harm report into the impact of parental drug use had excluded alcohol as beyond its scope. “In some cases there is poly-use of both drugs and alcohol. But a lot of families are primarily or solely affected by alcohol use,” she said.

Experts say the impact of parental drinking on children usually has to be extreme before services are made available.

Karen Queen, manager of Unity Enterprise’s Carer Service in Ayrshire, said her agency was dealing with young carers who were looking after a parent with alcohol issues. “We see a lot of kids with anger management issues -- feelings of guilt and self esteem can be a big issue. They are missing school, being bullied and feel their household is different -- often they don’t want to bring friends home,” she said.