The impact of parent influence on adolescent drinking behavior has been extensively researched, but remains unclear.
This assessment used data from a survey administered in after school programs in Maui County to further examine parents’ role in preventing underage drinking.
Two factors were explored for their impacts on drinking behavior: parent-child discussions and perceived parent sanctioning of alcohol use. Separate analysis was conducted for all respondents and for those who are drinkers. Youth ages 12-17 (n=572; 46.7% female; 25.2% alcohol drinkers; 16.4% binge drinkers) participated in the study.
No significant differences for the reported number of days of drinking (chi-square=1.38, p>0.05) and the number of days of binge drinking (chi-square=0.31, p>0.05) between those that did and did not have parent-child communications was found.
A significant difference was found, however, for the number of drinking days (chi-square=38.6, p<0.05) and the number of binge drinking days (chi-square=39.4, p<0.05), for “all respondents” between those who perceived parent restriction and those who did not.
These findings suggest that parent-child communication may be most influential when characterized in such a way as to include well-defined restrictions against alcohol use.
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