Parental Monitoring, Individual Dispositions, and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Longitudinal Study with Young Swiss Men.

Jimena Sobrino-Piazza,Meichun Mohler-Kuo,Natalia Estévez-Lamorte,Simon Foster

doi:10.3390/ijerph18189938

Abstract

This paper evaluates the interaction between level of parental monitoring in adolescence and individual dispositions present in early adulthood in the prediction of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the mid-20s. Data were drawn from the Cohort Study on Substance Use Risk Factors (C-SURF), encompassing 4844 young Swiss men who were surveyed three times within a 5-year period. The outcome variable was alcohol use disorder (AUD) as defined in the DSM-5. Independent variables were sensation seeking (Brief Sensation Seeking Scale) and the coping strategies active coping and denial (Brief COPE). Low parental monitoring, high sensation seeking, and high denial were found risk factors of AUD (odds ratio (OR) = 1.21 (1.05–1.40); OR = 1.56 (1.37–1.78); OR = 1.15 (1.01–1.31)). A significant interaction effect was identified between active coping and parental monitoring; high active coping in early adulthood was found protective of AUD, only among individuals who had low parental monitoring in adolescence (OR = 0.70 (0.52–0.96)). In addition to interventions to upskill parents for improving monitoring, other interventions directed to young adults who had disadvantaged family contexts could be implemented, with the aim of enhancing the use of adaptive coping strategies such as active coping. Prevention targeting avoidant coping strategies and sensation seeking should be privileged too.

Highlights

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders in the Western world [1,2]
With respect to the individual dispositions, both denial and sensation seeking were found to be risk factors for alcohol use disorder (AUD), which again corresponds with findings from previous research, both regarding the association between high levels of sensation seeking and risky drinking behavior [13,14] and with respect to the direct association between the use of avoidant coping strategies and alcohol use [15,16]
Our study revealed evidence suggesting that active coping in early adulthood can buffer against the effect of low parental monitoring on AUD

Summary

Introduction

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders in the Western world [1,2]. Parental monitoring (i.e., the extent to which parents know about their children’s whereabouts and the company they spend time with) has been identified as the strongest protective parental factor against alcohol use/misuse [7] The corollary to this is that the absence of adequate parental monitoring during childhood and adolescence may be a form of neglect—in the sense of the WHO’s definition of “emotional neglect”, which is “failure of a parent to provide for the emotional development of the child—where the parent is in a position to do so” [10]. Evidence from longitudinal studies suggests that the effects of parenting factors (parent–child relationship, favorable attitudes towards alcohol use, family conflict, parental support, parental involvement) persist over time, even though their impact may fade [7]

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