The Enduring Impact of Parents’ Monitoring, Warmth, Expectancies, and Alcohol Use on Their Children’s Future Binge Drinking and Arrests: a Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

Binge drinking is associated with many health and financial costs and is linked to risks of legal consequences. As alcohol use typically is initiated during adolescence, the current study assessed the relationship between parental behaviors and strategies in forecasting adolescents’ likelihood of binge drinking and later arrest. Restricted data from waves I–IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used to assess hypotheses. A weighted path analytic model (N = 9421) provided a multifaceted picture of variables linked to later antisocial behavior. Low parental monitoring, low parental warmth, parent alcohol use, and parent expectancies regarding their children’s alcohol use were associated with higher incidence of adolescent binge drinking. In turn, low monitoring, low warmth, parent alcohol use, parent expectancies, and underage consumption were associated with binge drinking in early adulthood. Binge drinking during both adolescence and young adulthood were predictive of respondents’ likelihood of arrest 8–14 years later. Findings demonstrated the substantial, enduring effects of parental behaviors on child alcohol-related actions and have implications for parent-targeted interventions designed to reduce excessive alcohol consumption. They suggest campaigns that focus on parenting strategies that involve setting effective and strict alcohol-related rules and guidelines, while maintaining a warm and supportive family environment.

Adolescent Alcohol Use: Protective and Predictive Parent, Peer, and Self-Related Factors

“…Informed by PBT, factors related to parents, peers, and self were examined to assess the interplay among personality, social environment, and behavioral systems. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Gottfredson and Hussong 2011; Donaldson et al 2016a; Pilgrim et al 2006), parental involvement had a protective effect for alcohol use for all groups: Higher levels of involvement were significantly associated with less alcohol use. Adding to current literature, the findings demonstrated the interplay between factors and highlighted parental involvement as an important first step in a path linked to either alcohol abstinence or use through factors relating to adolescents’ differential proneness to drink or to abstain from alcohol use.…”

“…Further, binge drinking holds great consequences for adolescents as it foretells future problems with alcohol, including increased risk of morbidity and mortality and a trajectory toward more serious alcohol-related problems (Donaldson et al 2016a, b; Oesterle et al 2004). As such, tailored interventions focused on factors most relevant to specific stages of adolescence are warranted for maximal preventive effectiveness.…”

“…Adolescents who engage in heavy episodic drinking (i.e., consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in a single occasion) face augmented health repercussions, both immediate and long-term (Oesterle et al 2004). These harms are posited to worsen with continued use as alcohol consumption during the teen years is related to risk factors (e.g., destructive relationships, substance abuse disorders in adulthood, future arrests) across development (Cairns and Cairns 1994; Donaldson et al 2016a; Schulenberg and Maslowsky 2009), indicating alcohol’s continuing long-term effects (Patrick and Schulenberg 2011). It is important to identify protective factors for adolescents at different developmental stages to curtail harmful drinking behavior and its consequences.…”

Binge drinking: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions

“…A variety of studies provide evidence of the correspondence between the binge drinking behaviour of parents and their adolescent offspring (Abar, Turrisi, & Mallett, 2014;Cleveland, Reavy, Mallett, Turrisi, & White, 2014;Crutzen, Giabbanelli, Jander, Mercken, & de Vries, 2015;Donaldson, Handren, & Crano, 2016;Haugland, Strandheim, & Bratberg, 2012;Klima, Skinner, Haggerty, Crutchfield, & Catalano, 2014;Pedersen & von Soest, 2013). Besides shared genetic factors that may be partly responsible for this link (Crabbe, Harris, & Koob, 2011;Desrivieres et al, 2008), role modelling and social learning processes are important because adolescents may adopt the excessive substance use habits of parents and siblings even if they perceive the negative consequences of it and judge it as 'too high' (Kuntsche & Meyer, 2002).…”

Social psychology circa 2016: A field on steroids

“…Specifically, William Crano's work on this topic has guided National Institute on Drug Abuse prevention campaigns, and he advised the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in developing evidence-based standards of substance prevention, subsequently adopted by many of the UN's member states. Crano and his colleagues specifically applied their expertise and designed abuse prevention policies in numerous developing countries in Asia and the Middle East (Kazakhstan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, among others; e.g., Donaldson, Handren, & Crano, 2016;Lac & Crano, 2009;Lamb & Crano, 2014;Miller, Siegel, Hohman, & Crano, 2013).…”