Parental drinking and adolescent binge drinking: Findings from a nationwide high school survey in Japan

Abstract

Background:Alcohol problems in parents have been revealed as one factor affecting adolescent alcohol misuse, but there are few studies on how parental drinking affects adolescent alcohol misuse in the general population. The findings of previous studies are inconsistent with respect to the influence of parental drinking according to parental structure. Binge drinking among adolescents has received much attention. In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between parental drinking in parents and binge drinking among high school students in Japan.Methods:We performed a secondary analysis of the Nationwide High School Survey on Drug Use and Lifestyle 2018, Japan. A total of 46,848 valid surveys from high school students of 78 schools were included for analysis. Logistic regression analysis was conducted with binge drinking as the dependent variable. We established nine groups, classified according to parental drinking by parental structure (e.g., both parents, single parent, neither parent at home) as the independent variable, after adjusting with demographic factors and lifestyle factors as covariates. Binge drinking was defined as five or more alcoholic drinks for male adolescents or four or more alcoholic drinks for females on the same occasion within 2 hours. Results: In the fully adjusted models, the risk of binge drinking in adolescents whose parents do not drink (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.541, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.411–0.711) and whose father drinks but mother does not (AOR: 0.696, 95% CI: 0.575–0.844) were significantly lower than that in adolescents whose parents drink. This risk was significantly higher among students with neither parent living at home (AOR: 3.746, 95% CI: 2.290–6.127). Conclusion:Our findings suggest that adolescents whose parents do not drink and whose father drinks but mother does not are less likely to engage in binge drinking. Adolescents who did not live with either parent may have greater risk of binge drinking. This research revealed that parental drinking affects binge drinking among adolescents in the general population. Engaging parents, including mothers and non-parental family members, in future programs and interventions is important, to prevent adolescent alcohol misuse.