Parent hazardous drinking and their children’s alcohol use in early and mid-adolescence: prospective cohort study

Abstract

Background Why adolescents’ drinking is associated with their parents’ drinking remains unclear. We examined associations in a prospective cohort study, adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and family factors. Methods We recruited 1927 children from grade 7 classes (mean age 13 years), and one of their parents, in three Australian states, contacted participants annually from 2010 to 2014, and analysed data from assessments at ages 13, 14, 15 and 16 years. We used the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) subscale to identify hazardous drinking in parents (score ≥5) and children (score ≥3) and constructed mixed-effect logistic regression models, accounting for clustering within school and adjusting for likely confounders. We evaluated the sensitivity of estimates by imputing missing values assuming the data were missing at random vs. missing not at random. Results Parent hazardous drinking predicted mid-adolescent hazardous drinking, e.g. 15 years olds whose parents [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.00; 95% confidence interval 1.51–2.64] or parents’ partners (aOR 1.94; 1.48–2.55) were hazardous drinkers had higher odds of being hazardous drinkers at age 16. The magnitude of univariate associations changed little after adjusting for covariates, and sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the association, across a wide range of assumptions about the missing data. Conclusions The associations between parents’ and their adolescent children’s hazardous drinking are unlikely to be due to confounding by socio-demographic and family factors. Parents should be encouraged, and supported by public policy, to reduce their own alcohol consumption in order to reduce their children’s risk of becoming hazardous drinkers.

Transitions to polysubstance use: Prospective cohort study of adolescents in Australia

“…More frequent parental HED, any parental illicit substance use and having (or perceiving oneself to have) more peers who get drunk or smoke tobacco were each independently associated with higher odds that a participant will transition to the polysubstance use state. This is consistent with previous findings in this cohort demonstrating a higher risk of adolescent alcohol consumption and alcohol related harms associated with both peer and parental substance use [53,54] and is in line with research demonstrating that countering normative misperceptions of peer use reduces alcohol, tobacco and other drug use [55,56]. Our novel inclusion of parent self-report data highlights that parental use might also be an important intervention target for preventing adolescent polysubstance use, in line with existing evidence from randomized control and cluster-randomized trials that support the effectiveness of family-based prevention programs [57][58][59].…”

Parents’ drinking, childhood hangover? Parental alcohol use, subjective health complaints and perceived stress among Swedish adolescents aged 10–18 years

“…Enhanced knowledge about the total societal consequences of alcohol consumption is essential for policy makers to be able to make informed decisions [ 4 , 45 ]. Studies using longitudinal survey data to examine long-term associations between different levels of parental drinking and offspring outcomes would aid more causal interpretations [ 29 , 46 ]. Investigating outcomes in other areas besides health, such as relationships with peers or academic achievements, is also a possible avenue for future research.…”

Covid-19 and alcohol: parental drinking influences the next generation

“…Children’s beliefs regarding positive or negative effects of alcohol are influenced by watching parental drinking, can develop in a short period of time, and can serve as predictors of their current and future drinking behaviours 23. Parental alcohol use or misuse is associated with subsequent alcohol consumption and misuse in adolescence through adulthood 456. Yet, many studies and discussions of adolescent drinking have failed to include parental drinking even as a confounding variable in the analyses, let alone as a major explanatory factor 7.…”