Parents’ perspective on their responsibilities with regard to adolescents’ use of alcohol

Abstract

Parents' perspective on their responsibilities with regard to adolescents' use of alcohol Background: Parents have responsibilities when their adolescent offspring use alcohol, but little is known about their views on the topic. This knowledge would help healthcare organisations to develop practices to help parents meet their responsibilities. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe parents' perceptions and experiences of their responsibilities and what support they needed to tackle underage drinking. Design and methods: This Finnish study was carried out in 2017. It used a qualitative descriptive method that involved carrying out semi-structured interviews with 20 parents of adolescents aged 14-15 years. The data were analysed using inductive content analysis. Results: Parents described that it was their responsibility to prevent problems that could have a negative impact on their adolescents' well-being. When it came to their responsibilities with regard to adolescents using alcohol, parents saw these as guiding and protecting their child, being aware of how parents used alcohol themselves, the way they communicated with adolescents and the rules they set about experimenting with alcohol. Parents said that receiving collaborative support from peers, community and professionals working in health and social care services would be useful. This could help them to prevent adolescents using alcohol, tackle problems that occurred when adolescents drank and enable parents to play a responsible role in their local community. Conclusion: Parents recognised that they had responsibilities to prevent alcohol having a negative impact on adolescents' well-being. They wanted to ensure that adolescents made sensible and responsible decisions when it came to using alcohol. Parents described that the most important form of support was peer support from other parents. The findings of this study can be used to inform the development of preventive healthcare services and support parents to meet their responsibilities with regard to tackling underage drinking.

How Adolescents and Parents See Their Moral Responsibilities With Regard to Adolescents Using Alcohol—A Deductive Secondary Analysis

“…Using NVivo software helped us to achieve our research objectives, as this made the analysis process more systematic and helped us to increase the credibility. The uniformity of the secondary data, and their credibility with the qualitative original studies 28,32 confirmed their internal validity. The data collection and analysis process have been described in detail to enable transferability.…”

“…This was a deductive secondary analysis that explored the original datasets 28,32 of two studies conducted in Eastern Finland in 2017 (Figure 1). We used the consolidated criteria for qualitative research to ensure explicit and comprehensive reporting of the study and to improve its rigor, comprehensiveness, and credibility 33 .…”

“…Studies have reported that adolescents who stuck to their personal moral rules felt that intoxication was wrong 7,27 and their peers found it hard to influence them 27 . Parents have said that they were responsible for providing guidance, monitoring and protection, setting rules, and providing information to ensure that adolescents avoided the harmful effects of using alcohol 14,28 . The parents' own attitudes and alcohol cultures affect how their adolescents experiment with alcohol.…”

Adolescents’ Perceptions and Experiences of Their Responsibilities for Their Alcohol Use—A Group Interview Study

“…Previous research has focused on responsibilities for adolescents' alcohol use from their own developmental perspective [23] and from their parents' point of view [24]. Research has mainly focused on adolescents' alcohol consumption [25] and its consequences [5,6].…”

“…Support from families, schools and peers has been found to prevent, and reduce, adolescents' drinking [26,27]. However, we need to know more about adolescents' own perspectives of their responsibilities with regard to their alcohol use and what support adolescents feel they need [24,28]. The Finnish Alcohol Act (1102/2017) states that people under 18 years of age are not allowed to buy or consume alcohol [29].…”