Childhood Alcohol Use Research Articles

Comparison of Middle School Students' Knowledge and Attitude Toward Alcohol Use according to the level of Parent’s Alcohol consumption

Objectives: This research was performed to understand the effect of parent’s alcohol consumption on middle school student's knowledge and attitude toward alcohol use. Methods: The subjects were 391 second grade middle school students recruited by convenient sampling in July of 2009. Korean version of Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-K) and questionnaire of knowledge and attitude toward alcohol use were used as measurement tools. Results: Ninety-three parents (23.8%) were classified as problematic alcohol users. The students' scores on attitude and knowledge toward alcohol use showed statistically significant differences according to whether their parent's alcohol use was problematic or not. Also, in comparing the general characteristics between two groups, marital relationship, father’s level of education, father’s drinking frequency, mother’s drinking frequency, and the rate of parent's co-living with the children showed significant differences. In the student group with problematic drink parent group, the correlations of attitude and knowledge toward alcohol use was significant (r=.23, p=.034). Conclusions: The alcohol use of parents affect the drinking behaviors of their adolescent offsprings. There was weak correlation between knowledge and attitude toward alcohol use, therefore, alcohol prevent programs with new strategies focused on promoting proper attitude of children's alcohol use is hoped to be developed in the future.

Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver in Adolescents: A Worrisome Convergence

Health problems related to alcohol abuse are characterized by a heavy socio-economic impact with major consequences on health costs and national productivity both in industrialized and developing countries (Leon and McCambridge, 2006a; Morrison et al ., 2006). The observation that alcohol-related problems seem to disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults constitutes an additional reason for concern (Leon and McCambridge, 2006b; Bosetti et al ., 2007). Indeed, independently of gender and of region of the world, individuals in the age range 15–29 years consistently present the highest proportion of alcohol-attributable deaths (Larsson and Wolk, 2007). In addition, a growing body of evidence suggests that the introduction to alcohol use in childhood followed by alcohol abuse in adolescence lead to an increased risk for high-impact diseases in adulthood such as cancer, liver cirrhosis, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, mental and behavioural disorders (Anderson et al ., 1993; Byrne et al ., 2004). Besides these long-term risks, alcohol abuse in childhood and adolescence is associated with an increased risk of developing acute and chronic liver diseases (Mathurin and Deltenre, 2009). Binge drinking is the most common pattern of alcohol consumption among high-school youth (Mathurin and Deltenre, 2009) and is more frequent in males than in females. In 2001, 22.7% of males and 7.2% of females reported binge drinking in the USA. In this country, between 1993 and 2001, binge drinking episodes per person per year increased by 17%, with the highest rates occurring among subjects in the age range 18–25 years (Naimi et al ., 2003). In European countries, with the exception of the UK and Denmark, alcohol abuse among adults has been declining over the past decade with an overall decrease in the mortality due to alcoholic cirrhosis. This is at least in part related to improvements in …

Family Relationship Quality and Early Alcohol Use: Evidence for Gender-Specific Risk Processes

Family characteristics (relationship quality, parental behaviors, and attitudes relating to alcohol use) are known to influence alcohol use in the mid-teen years, and there is evidence that family characteristics have different influences on mid-teen girls versus boys. This study examined child gender differences in the association of family relationship quality, parental disapproval of children's alcohol use, and parental alcohol use with early adolescent alcohol use. Grade 6 and 8 students (modal age 11 and 13, respectively; N = 6,837; 52.6% female) were recruited from 231 schools across three Australian states. Hypotheses were tested using two-level ordinal logistic regression (individuals nested within schools). The main dependent measure was lifetime frequency of early adolescent alcohol consumption. Independent variables included mother's/father's alcohol use, closeness, conflict, and disapproval of adolescent alcohol use. Control variables included sensation seeking, peer alcohol use, and socioeconomic disadvantage. The key findings were that for the young age group (Grade 6), emotional closeness to the parent of the opposite sex was protective. Family conflict was associated with females' drinking in both age groups but not males' drinking. There was evidence of gender differences in the epidemiology of family relationship quality and early alcohol use. Social developmental models may need revision to account for these child gender differences. Gender-specific family dynamics may be an important consideration for family-oriented prevention strategy.

Parenting and Trajectories of Children's Maladaptive Behaviors: A 12-Year Prospective Community Study

This study investigated how parenting accounted for interindividual differences in developmental trajectories of different child behaviors across childhood and adolescence. In a cohort sequential community sample of 1,049 children, latent class growth analysis was applied to three parent-reported dimensions (monitoring, positive parenting, inconsistent discipline) across 12 annual assessments (ages 6–18). Four longitudinal parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, uninvolved) were differentiated on the basis of levels and rates of change in the constituent parenting dimensions. Multigroup analyses demonstrated that these parenting styles were differentially related to changes in parent- and child-reported measures of children's alcohol and cigarette use, antisocial behavior, and internalizing symptoms, with the authoritative parenting class being related to the most optimal long-term development.

Parental Awareness of Substance Use Among Youths in Public Service Sectors

When asked about substance use, youths typically endorse higher levels of use than parents, suggesting that parents are often unaware of their child's drug and alcohol use. This study sought to examine the level of concordance between reports of youths enrolled in public sectors of care and their parents, and identify potential predictors of parental awareness of substance use and related problems. Youths receiving services in one or more public sectors of care (N = 985; 67% male) and their parents were interviewed about the youths' substance use and substance use problems, as well as associated demographic, parental, and youth factors. As has been found in other studies, youths generally reported higher rates of substance use and substance use problems compared with parents. Rates of agreement ranged from κ = .24 (sedatives) to κ = .67 (marijuana) and were higher for drug problems (κ = .47) than for alcohol problems (κ = .34). Predictors of parental awareness of drug problems included youth gender (male), race (White compared with Hispanic), and higher ratings of youth's functional impairment. Predictors of parental awareness of alcohol problems included race (White compared with Hispanic), lower levels of youth-reported parental monitoring, lower levels of parental depression, and higher ratings of youth functional impairment. In this high-risk population, a significant proportion of parents are unaware of their child's alcohol (30%) and substance use (50%) problems. Services geared toward enhancing parental awareness, especially for parents of Hispanic and female youths, may increase communication and treatment seeking.

Discrepancy between how children perceive their own alcohol risk and how they perceive alcohol risk for other children longitudinally predicts alcohol use

This paper examined discrepancies between children's self-perceptions of the riskiness of alcohol use versus their perceptions of the riskiness of alcohol use for other children, and whether these discrepancies predicted children's future alcohol use. Participants included 234 children ( M = 11 years, 45.3% female) who completed baseline and one-year follow-up assessments on self-perceived riskiness of alcohol use, perceived riskiness of alcohol use for other same-age children, and own past year alcohol use. When considering child age and gender, baseline alcohol use, and the individual reports of the riskiness of alcohol use, the interaction between alcohol use riskiness reports prospectively predicted greater odds of alcohol use. The highest percentage of childhood alcohol use at one-year follow-up came from those children with both low self-perceived riskiness of alcohol use and high perceived riskiness of alcohol use for other children. Children's perceptions of multiple people's risk from alcohol use result in identifying important subgroups of children at risk for early-onset alcohol use.

Update on Alcohol Use in Childhood and Adolescence

Update on Alcohol Use in Childhood and Adolescence

Youth alcohol and drug use in rural Ireland - parents' views

Drug availability is increasing throughout Ireland due to a convergence of rural and urban cultures during the last decade of economic growth and prosperity. Rural Irish youth may now have a heightened risk for problematic alcohol and drug use due to increased exposure to drugs, urban contact with peer drug users, unstructured recreation time and poor parental monitoring. Rural parents may perceive their children to be less at risk, and often struggle more than their urban counterparts to identify and respond to their children's alcohol and drug use. The aim of this research was to provide an exploratory account of rural parents' perspectives on alcohol and illicit drug use among youth in Ireland. A convenience sample of parents with adolescent children was selected at a parent-teacher evening at 3 rural schools, with the facilitation of school completion officers (34 mothers and 21 fathers, n = 55). Semi-structured interviews were conducted which included questions relating to the parents' perceptions of youth drug and alcohol use, both in terms of recreational and problematic use in their communities, levels of drug availability, risk perceptions, settings of adolescent substance use, service provision and drug information; and not necessarily with regard to their own children. Following transcription of the interviews, a content and thematic analysis was conducted in order to identify areas of similar and contrasting opinions, and various formulations were compared and contrasted in order to ground the information firmly in the data garnered. The results suggested parental concern with regard to increased rural drug exposure for youth in local rural communities. The majority of parents were aware of youth alcohol use but were concerned about all drugs, not aware of specific differences in drug-related risk, and had difficulty comprehending harm-reduction principles. Most parents recognised the need for greater parental monitoring, awareness of free time accountability, improved parent-child discourse, and visibility of services. Life in contemporary rural Ireland is influenced by dominant social changes in terms of the normalisation of alcohol and drug use in youth subcultures, with increased fragmentation of traditional rural family norms and values, emerging acceptability of alcohol and drug use in recreation time and the widespread availability of alcohol and drugs. There is a need to target rural parents using a community development approach in order to provide drug education, service visibility and family support for those experiencing problematic substance use.

Association of parents' alcohol use and family interaction with the initiation of alcohol use by sixth graders: A preliminary study in Taiwan

BackgroundThe family is the main environment where children are socialized and learn individual behavior. Although previous studies have examined predictors of preadolescent first alcohol use, few studies have analyzed factors associated with alcohol use in children in a country with low alcohol consumption. The aim of this study was to investigate the initiation of alcohol use by sixth graders and determine family factors associated with first alcohol use.MethodsData used in this study was collected as part of the Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE) project in 2002 (when study participants were in grade 5 and aged 10–11 years) and 2003 (when study participants were in grade 6 and aged 11–12 years). Data from a total of 1,183 participants was analyzed. Main study variables included children's alcohol use: (1) never user (never user in 2002 and 2003), or (2) first-time user (never user in 2002 but ever user in 2003); parents' alcohol use: (1) both parents ever users, (2) mother ever user and father never user, (3) father ever user and mother never user, (4) both parents never users; parental support; and family conflict. Correlates of first alcohol use were identified using logistic regression.ResultsThere were 183 students (15.5%) who became first-time users of alcohol in the sixth grade. Having parents who both used alcohol, less parental support, and more family conflict were significant predictors of sixth graders' first alcohol use. Family interaction and parents' drinking were equally important predictors of preteen's first use of alcohol.ConclusionFamily factors influence children's initiation of alcohol use. It is important to educate parents about the effects of alcohol on children and to emphasize the importance of prevention.

Parental drug use, early adversities, later childhood problems and children's use of tobacco and alcohol at age 10: birth cohort study

To estimate the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use among children at age 10 years and to investigate possible influences on this. Birth cohort study. England. A total of 6895 children provided data at age 10. Parental tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use, parental social position, children's intelligence, behavioural and emotional problems, children's tobacco and alcohol use at age 10. A total of 1.3% of children reported smoking and 1.8% reported drinking alcohol, with boys reporting higher use than girls. Parental social disadvantage was the strongest predictor of children's smoking and also predicted children's alcohol use. Some of this association appeared to be mediated through the greater experience of childhood behavioural and cognitive problems among the disadvantaged. Parental smoking and paternal alcohol use had little independent influence on offspring drug use. Postnatal, rather than prenatal, maternal alcohol use predicted children's alcohol use. Strategies to prevent early initiation of tobacco and alcohol use should focus upon the reduction of childhood social disadvantage and the behavioural and cognitive problems associated with this.

The mediation of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on their children's alcohol use: Self-verification, informational conformity, and modeling processes.

This research examined whether self-fulfilling prophecy effects are mediated by self-verification, informational conformity, and modeling processes. The authors examined these mediational processes across multiple time frames with longitudinal data obtained from two samples of mother-child dyads (N-sub-1 = 486; N-sub-2 = 287), with children's alcohol use as the outcome variable. The results provided consistent support for the mediational process of self-verification. In both samples and across several years of adolescence, there was a significant indirect effect of mothers' beliefs on children's alcohol use through children's self-assessed likelihood of drinking alcohol in the future. Comparatively less support was found for informational conformity and modeling processes as mediators of mothers' self-fulfilling effects. The potential for self-fulfilling prophecies to produce long-lasting changes in targets' behavior via self-verification processes are discussed.

Really underage drinkers: the epidemiology of children's alcohol use in the United States.

Little attention has been paid to alcohol use by children aged 12 and younger. The present article summarizes findings on the prevalence of alcohol use from US national and statewide surveys of children in grades 6 and younger based on reports located in searches of the literature and the Internet. Four national surveys and seven statewide surveys of children's alcohol and drug use were located that present rates of lifetime sipping and tasting, lifetime experience of more than a sip, alcohol use in the past year, use in the past month, and use in the past week. Prevalence rates decrease with the level of involvement assessed. Alcohol use increases with age, doubling between grades four and six, with the largest jump in prevalence between grades five and six. At each grade level, boys are more likely to have used alcohol than girls. African-American children are nearly as likely as white and Hispanic children to have used alcohol. Over the past decade or so, the prevalence of both lifetime and current alcohol use has been declining in children. The failure to assess intensity of children's use hampers evaluation of the level of risk experienced by children. There is a need for ongoing nationwide surveillance of alcohol use in this population and for greater education of parents regarding the dangers of introducing children to alcohol use.

Self‐efficacy as a moderator of negative and positive self‐fulfilling prophecy effects: mothers' beliefs and children's alcohol use

AbstractThis research examined two issues relevant to self‐fulfilling prophecies. First, it examined whether children's risk for alcohol use, as indicated by their self‐efficacy to refuse alcohol from peers, moderated their susceptibility to negative and positive self‐fulfilling prophecy effects created by their mothers. Second, it explored behavioral mediators that could be involved in the self‐fulfilling process between mothers and children. Longitudinal data from 540 mother–child dyads indicated that (1) low self‐efficacy children were more susceptible to their mothers' positive than negative self‐fulfilling effects, whereas high self‐efficacy children's susceptibility did not vary, (2) mothers' global parenting and children's perception of their friends' alcohol use partially mediated mothers' self‐fulfilling effects, and (3) these mediators contributed to low self‐efficacy children's greater susceptibility to positive self‐fulfilling prophecy effects. The power of self‐fulfilling prophecies, their link to social problems, and the potential for mothers' favorable beliefs to have a protective influence on adolescent alcohol use are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Maternal Perceptions of Alcohol Use by Adolescents Who Drink Alcohol

This research examines correlates of mothers' misperceptions of their adolescent children's regular alcohol consumption. Theories of adolescent autonomy, attribution processes, and stereotypes were used to make predictions about the biasing effects on attribution accuracy of maternal age, relationship satisfaction, and supervision of one's adolescent, as well as the adolescent's age, gender, physical development level, and peers. The present research used a nationally representative sample of approximately 20,000 parent-adolescent dyads from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Add Health is a school-based sample of 20,745 adolescents in Grades 7-12. Mothers indicated their perceptions of their adolescent children's alcohol use, and adolescents reported their actual use of alcohol. There was a tendency for mothers to underestimate alcohol use, sometimes substantially so. Maternal attributions followed a correlational pattern consistent with the scientific literature. There was evidence, however, that mothers may overgeneralize the applicability of these correlates, resulting in misattributions. Our analyses have important practical implications for parent-based intervention programs aimed at preventing adolescent alcohol use. First, programs should alert parents to the cues that signify adolescent alcohol consumption. Second, intervention programs should appropriately sensitize parents to identifying adolescent alcohol use in cases in which the child may not fit the stereotype of an adolescent drinker. Third, intervention messages should emphasize firm and consistent parental actions that minimize alcohol use independent of the particular cues that an adolescent is projecting.

Does Learning About the Effects of Alcohol on the Developing Brain Affect Children's Alcohol Use?

Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM) is a classroom-based, alcohol-use prevention and vehicle safety program for students in grades 1-5 developed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). PY/PM is one of the first alcohol prevention programs targeting children that incorporates emerging research on the adverse effects of alcohol on the developing brain. In this study, we surveyed fifth grade students, some of whom were exposed to their fifth consecutive year of PY/PM implementation. Results indicate that, relative to comparison students from matched schools, PY/PM students increased their knowledge of the effects of alcohol on the developing brain, their perception of the potential harm of alcohol use, and their vehicle safety skills. PY/PM students also exhibited increased negative attitudes toward underage drinking, increased their intentions not to use alcohol, and reported decreased riding with an impaired driver. PY/PM did not have an effect on alcohol use per se of these fifth graders. Path modeling revealed that knowledge of the effects of alcohol on the developing brain had both a direct and an indirect effect on alcohol use, the latter by increasing perceptions of the harm of underage alcohol use which, in turn affected intentions to use and use itself. Teaching children about the effects of alcohol on the developing brain appears to be a promising strategy for underage alcohol use prevention.

Self-fulfilling prophecy effects of mothers' beliefs on children's alcohol use: Accumulation, dissipation, and stability over time.

This research examined whether self-fulfilling prophecy effects accumulated, dissipated, or remained stable over time in terms of 2 complementary conceptual models. Analyses of longitudinal data from 2 samples of mother-child dyads (N(1) = 487; N(2) = 288) yielded 3 main findings. First, the degree to which mothers' inaccurate beliefs assessed at a single point in time predicted children's distal alcohol use did not differ from the degree to which they predicted children's proximal alcohol use, thereby supporting a pattern of stability for the samples on average. Second, mothers' inaccurate beliefs repeatedly assessed across time had additive self-fulfilling effects on their children's subsequent alcohol use assessed at a single later point in time. Third, these additive self-fulfilling effects served to exacerbate differences in the alcohol use of children who had been consistently exposed to unfavorable versus favorable beliefs year after year. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the link between self-fulfilling prophecies and social problems.

Family Protection and Prevention of Alcohol Use Among Hispanic Youth at High Risk

Research regarding prevention strategies for Hispanic youth stress the importance of family interventions because of the particular importance of family as a protective factor within the Hispanic community. Starting in 1995, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention conducted the National Cross-Site Evaluation of High Risk Youth Programs, a 5-year drug and alcohol prevention study with a sample of approximately 10,500 youth, including nearly 3,000 Hispanic youth. Youth were surveyed regarding their alcohol use patterns and risk and protective factors, with several measures of family relationships, including family connectedness, family supervision, and parental attitudes toward their child's alcohol use. Analyses indicate that family factors are highly linked to alcohol use among Hispanics, particularly among Hispanic females. Longitudinal growth curve analyses indicate that improving the connections that young Hispanic females have to their parents can have positive long-term effects on delaying or reducing their alcohol use.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

This research examined whether mothers' and fathers' beliefs about their children's alcohol use had cumulative self-fulfilling effects on their children's future drinking behavior. Analyses of longitudinal data acquired from 115 seventh-grade children and their mothers and fathers were consistent with synergistic accumulation effects for negative beliefs: Parents' beliefs predicted the greatest degree of confirmatory behavior from children when both mothers and fathers overestimated their children's alcohol use. Results did not support synergistic accumulation effects for positive beliefs: Children's predicted future alcohol use was similar regardless of whether one parent or both underestimated their child's alcohol use. These findings suggest that the generally small self-fulfilling effects reported in the literature may underestimate the power of negative self-fulfilling prophecies to harm targets because studies have not taken into consideration the possibility that negative self-fulfilling prophecies may be more likely than positive ones to accumulate across multiple perceivers.

Really underage drinkers: alcohol use among elementary students.

Despite the current societal concern with underage drinking, little attention has been paid to alcohol use within the preadolescent population. This article presents the proceedings of a symposium held at the 2003 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that was organized and chaired by John E. Donovan. The intent of the symposium was to kick start research on alcohol use among elementary school children by reviewing what is known regarding drinking in childhood. Presentations included (1) The Epidemiology of Children's Alcohol Use, by John E. Donovan; (2) The Validity of Children's Self-Reports of Alcohol Use, by Sharon L. Leech; (3) Predicting Onset of Drinking From Behavior at Three Years of Age: Influence of Early Child Expectancies and Parental Alcohol Involvement Upon Early First Use, by Robert A. Zucker; and (4) Parent, Peer, and Child Risk Factors for Alcohol Use in Two Cohorts of Elementary School Children, by Carol J. Loveland-Cherry. Presentations indicated the need for better nationwide surveillance of children's experience with alcohol; suggested that children's reports of their use of alcohol tend to be reliable and valid; supported children's alcohol use schemas and parental drinking and alcoholism at child age three as independent predictors of early onset drinking; and showed that onset of drinking before fourth or fifth grade, peer pressure, and parental norms and monitoring predict elementary student alcohol use and misuse.

The association between parental alcohol-related behaviors and children's drinking

Past literature has established an association between children's alcohol-related behaviors and parents’ use of and attitudes toward alcohol. However, most studies tend to measure parental use and attitudes through proxy, i.e. children's perception. It is not clear the extent to which actual parental use and attitudes influence children's alcohol behaviors. The current study directly used parents’ reports on alcohol use and attitudes toward alcohol and examined their impact on children's alcohol use. Based on a three-stage random sampling design, 642 dyads of parents and children (ages 15–18) were interviewed by telephone in New York State. Study variables include parental alcohol use, children's alcohol use, parental attitudes toward underage drinking and parent–child interaction. While parental use and attitudes do not seem to significantly affect children's alcohol use, the extent to which parents prohibit children from using alcohol at home tends to reduce children's alcohol involvement. In addition, the greater the amount of time spent with alcohol-using parents, the more likely the children are to use alcohol. Findings suggest that, while parents’ alcohol use influences children's alcohol use through extensive interaction, parental control of underage alcohol use in the household appears to reduce children's involvement in underage alcohol use.