Publication year: 2011
Source: Addictive Behaviors, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 5 August 2011
Caitlin C., Abar , Anne C., Fernandez , Mark D., Wood
Although parent-adolescent communication has been identified as important in delaying the onset and escalation of alcohol use, both the strength and direction of observed associations has varied in prior research with adolescents and college students. The current study categorizes parents according to alcohol-related communication and relates these categories to other parenting factors and late adolescent alcohol involvement. Method: As part of a larger study, 1,007 college-bound teens and their parents were assessed. Teens were asked to report on their drinking behavior, and parents were asked about the occurrence of several specific alcohol-related communications with their teen, as well as additional parenting characteristics….
Highlights: ► Performed latent class analysis on 1,007 college-bound teens and their parents. ► Identified five distinct patterns of alcohol-related parent-teen communication. ► Majority of parents (90%) discussed all alcohol-related topics with at least moderate frequency. ► Parents who frequently discussed all alcohol-related topics tended to model alcohol use the least. ► Profiles of alcohol-related communication also differed on monitoring, parent-teen relationship satisfaction, and teen drinking.