Citation

Williams RJ, Kittinger DS, Eller LN, Nigg CR. Hawaii Med. J. 2010; 69(6): 145-147.

Affiliation

Office of Public Health Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Hawaii Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

20535688

PMCID

PMC3118016

Abstract

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), f or "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.

Language: en