Cohort Profile: The Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS)

Abstract

The Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS) was established in 2010 to investigate the short- and long-term associations between exposure to early parental alcohol provision, early adolescent alcohol initiation, subsequent alcohol use and alcohol-related harms, controlling for a wide range of parental, child, familial, peer and contextual covariates. The cohort commenced with 1927 parent-child dyads comprising Australian Grade 7 school students (mean age = 12.9 years, range = 10.8-15.7 years), and a parent/guardian. Baseline, 1- and 2-year follow-up data have been collected, with > 90% retention, and a 3-year follow-up is under way. The data collected include child, familial, parental and peer factors addressing demographics, alcohol use and supply, parenting practices, other substance use, adolescent behaviours and peer influences. The cohort is ideal for prospectively examining predictors of initiation and progression of alcohol use, which increases markedly through adolescence.

Parents Who Supply Sips of Alcohol in Early Adolescence: A Prospective Study of Risk Factors

“…First, participants were not randomly selected from the population, increasing the risk of self-selection and nonresponse biases. However, as outlined earlier and elsewhere, 15,28,29,33 the sample reported many similarities on a range of demographic and alcohol use variables with the Australian population, suggesting selective nonresponse biases were minimized. Second, self-report of parental supply may have resulted in social desirability bias, where parents may have underreported supply, fearing negative social consequences, but this should reduce associations, so the results found are likely to be robust.…”

“…15 26 When a case was missing a single item on a scale, the dataset was searched for the same pattern of responses on that specific scale within other cases. When multiple response patterns matched in the dataset, a reliability estimate was generated.…”

“…[5][6][7] By age 13, up to 60% of adolescents have had a sip/taste of alcohol 5,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] ; sipping is more prevalent than drinking in this age group. 5,6,10,15 Sipping is associated with increased risk of early adolescent drinking and binge drinking, 12,16 but the area of sipping is under-researched. Despite recommendations that parents avoid providing alcohol to children, 15 parents remain a major supplier of alcohol to adolescent children, including sips.…”

“…5,6,10,15 Sipping is associated with increased risk of early adolescent drinking and binge drinking, 12,16 but the area of sipping is under-researched. Despite recommendations that parents avoid providing alcohol to children, 15 parents remain a major supplier of alcohol to adolescent children, including sips. 17,18 Reasons for this early supply are particularly poorly studied, with a recent exception, 9 where 60% to 70% of mothers disagreed that supplying access to sips was beneficial.…”

Internet-Based Universal Prevention for Students and Parents to Prevent Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among Adolescents: Protocol for the Randomized Controlled Trial of Climate Schools Plus

“…This will be measured by a 2-question scale from the Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS) [44] to examine the frequency and quantity of alcohol supplied by parents; higher scores indicate a higher frequency and quantity of alcohol supplied.…”