A study involving 9 and 10-year-olds discovered that children who consume caffeinated soda drinks daily are twice as likely to begin sipping alcohol within the next 12 months compared to those who consume these drinks less frequently. Additionally, these children appeared to be more impulsive and had poorer working memory. The paper was published in Substance Use & Misuse.
Caffeinated soda drinks are carbonated beverages that contain caffeine, a stimulant that can increase alertness and energy levels. These beverages include popular options like Mountain Dew, Jolt, Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and Barq’s root beer, among others. Besides caffeine, these sodas often contain high levels of sugar or artificial sweeteners, along with a variety of flavors and additives, making them a favorite worldwide for a quick energy boost or a refreshing drink.
However, studies have suggested that the consumption of caffeinated soda drinks may be linked to substance misuse. Regularly drinking these sodas, especially in large amounts, has been associated with an increased likelihood of experimenting with other substances that offer similar stimulating effects. While most studies have focused on adolescents, the link between caffeinated soda consumption and substance use in preadolescent children has been less explored.
Study author Mina Kwon of Seoul National University and her colleagues wanted to explore the links between the intake of caffeinated soda beverages and substance use risk factors in preadolescent children. They hypothesized that daily caffeinated soda intake would predict alcohol sipping a year later. Alcohol sipping in children refers to the practice of allowing children to taste or consume small amounts of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol sipping occurs in family or various social settings where it is often seen as harmless. However, it can increase the risk of developing alcohol-related problems later in life.
The researchers analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (ABCD study), an extensive, long-term project aimed at understanding how brain development affects cognitive, social, and emotional functioning in adolescents. They focused on data from 11,878 children aged 9-10, recruited from 21 different U.S. locations via their schools. For their analysis, they used data from 2,092 children who provided comprehensive information on their caffeinated soda consumption and met other criteria.
Participants reported their weekly intake of caffeinated sodas and underwent assessments for working memory, impulsivity, and reward processing through various tests. Children familiar with alcohol also filled out a questionnaire about their experiences with alcohol sipping. The researchers chose to focus on working memory, impulsivity, and reward processing because disruptions in these areas are considered risk factors for developing substance use disorders.
Results showed that children from families with a history of drug use and lower levels of education were more likely to consume caffeinated sodas. These beverages were also more popular among boys, Black children, those with higher body mass indexes, low parental monitoring, lower family incomes, insufficient sleep, and more externalizing behaviors. Externalizing behaviors, which include aggressive and antisocial actions, are often a sign of an individual’s struggle to regulate emotions or impulses.
Children who consumed large amounts of caffeinated drinks were more impulsive and had lower scores on working memory tests. Reward processing, however, did not show a significant correlation with caffeinated soda consumption. Notably, the intake of these beverages was a predictor of alcohol sipping 12 months later, with daily consumers being twice as likely to start sipping alcohol compared to those who drank less or none at all.
“Our results revealed the potential risks of caffeinated soda consumption in children by investigating the associations between caffeinated soda consumption and risk factors for SUDs [substance use disorders] and examining the ability of caffeinated soda consumption to predict future alcohol sipping, using the large ABCD dataset,” the study authors concluded.
“The present results strongly suggest that caffeinated soda drinking in children is also associated with altered neurobehavioral function and can predict alcohol sipping after 12 months. Our study further suggests a strong need to develop evidence-based recommendations for caffeinated soda consumption in minors, as there is no consensus on a safe dose of caffeinated soda in children, and some children are at higher risk of adverse events from frequent caffeinated soda intake.”
The study sheds light on the links between caffeinated soda intake and factors associated with substance use risk later in life. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the results.
The paper, “Caffeinated Soda Intake in Children Is Associated with Neurobehavioral Risk Factors for Substance Misuse,” was authored by Mina Kwon, Hyeonjin Kim, Jaeyeong Yang, Yoseph Lee, Jihyun K. Hur, Tae-Ho Lee, James M. Bjork, and Woo-Young Ahn.