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

Abstract

Background Alcohol abuse is not only harmful to the consumer but may also negatively impact individuals in the drinker’s social environment. Alcohol’s harm to others is vital to consider when calculating the true societal cost of alcohol use. Children of parents who have alcohol use disorder tend to have an elevated risk of negative outcomes regarding, e.g., health, education, and social relationships. Research on the general youth population has established a link between parental drinking and offspring alcohol use. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding other outcomes, such as health. The current study aimed to investigate the associations between parental drinking and children’s psychological and somatic complaints, and perceived stress. Methods Data were derived from a nationally representative sample, obtained from the 2010 Swedish Level-of-Living survey (LNU). Parents and adolescents (ages 10–18) living in the same households were interviewed independently. The final study sample included 909 adolescents from 629 households. The three outcomes, psychological and somatic complaints and perceived stress, were derived from adolescents’ self-reports. Parents’ self-reports of alcohol use, both frequency and quantity, were used to categorise adolescents as having abstaining, low-consuming, moderate-drinking, or heavy-drinking parents. Control variables included adolescents’ gender, age, family structure, and household socioeconomic status. Linear and binary logistic regression analyses were performed. Results Parental heavy drinking was more common among adolescents living in more socioeconomically advantaged households and among adolescents living with two custodial parents or in reconstituted families. Adolescents with heavy-drinking parents reported higher levels of psychological and somatic complaints and had an increased likelihood of reporting stress, compared with those having moderate-drinking parents. These associations remained statistically significant when adjusting for all control variables. Conclusion The current study’s results show that parental alcohol consumption is associated with poorer offspring adolescent health. Public health policies that aim to reduce parental drinking or provide support to these adolescents may be beneficial. Further studies investigating the health-related outcomes among young people living with heavy-drinking parents in the general population are needed to gain more knowledge about these individuals and to implement adequate public health measures.

Perceived parental alcohol problems and psychosomatic complaints among adolescents in Sweden

“…The results demonstrated that adolescents with perceived parental alcohol problems had about twice as high odds of reporting psychosomatic complaints compared with adolescents without perceived parental alcohol problems, even when adjusting for sociodemographic background characteristics. This finding reflects those of recent studies based on other Swedish data materials using different measures of parental alcohol problems ( Ramstedt et al, 2022 , Ramstedt et al, 2023 , Wahlström et al, 2023a , Wahlström et al, 2023b ). While prior studies on CAST-6 and adolescent psychosomatic complaints were based on data collected among grade 9 students (aged 15–16) ( Ramstedt et al, 2022 , Ramstedt et al, 2023 ), the present study utilised data from students in both grades 9 and 11, thus expanding the scope of generalisability.…”

“…One particular type of adversity relates to alcohol problems in the family of origin ( Felitti et al, 1998 ). Children of problem-drinking parents have increased risks of short- and long-term adverse outcomes in terms of, e.g., higher levels of drinking and more problematic drinking themselves ( Haugland et al, 2013 , Karlsson et al, 2016 , Olssonet al, 2019 , Olsson et al, 2021 , Pisinger et al, 2017 , Thor et al, 2022 ), higher levels of self-reported health problems ( Pisinger et al, 2016 , Wahlström et al, 2023a ), increased risks of mental and behavioural disorders ( Johnson and Leff, 1999 , Landberg et al, 2019 , Raitasalo et al, 2019 ), as well as poorer educational outcomes ( Berg et al, 2016 , Pisinger et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Psychosomatic complaints have been shown to correlate with perceived stress in adolescents, and can hence be regarded as an indicator of stress-related ill-health in this age group ( Corell et al, 2022 ). To date, the association between parental alcohol problems and adolescents’ self-reported psychosomatic complaints has been scarcely investigated, although there are some recent studies based on Swedish data which report links between parental alcohol problems and children’s psychosomatic complaints ( Ramstedt et al, 2023 , Wahlström et al, 2023b , Ramstedt et al, 2022 , Wahlström et al, 2023a ). Overall, however, there is limited knowledge and a relative lack of empirical evidence on this topic.…”

Perceived parental alcohol problems and drinking patterns among adolescents in Sweden

“…These children face an elevated risk of experiencing adverse social and physical consequences such as neglect, abuse, and dysfunctional family environments ( Dube et al, 2001 , Haugland et al, 2021 , Jose and Cherayi, 2020 ). They also tend to exhibit higher rates of self-reported health problems ( Pisinger et al, 2017 , Wahlström et al, 2023 , Syed Raza et al, 2023 ), increased risks of mental and behavioural problems ( Johnson and Leff, 1999 , Landberg et al, 2019 , Raitasalo et al, 2019 ), and lower educational attainment ( Berg et al, 2016 , Pisinger et al, 2023 ). Moreover, children with parents who have alcohol problems are more likely to develop alcohol dependency themselves compared to other children in the same society ( Johnson & Leff, 1999 ).…”

Perceived problematic alcohol use in the family and adolescents’ stress-related complaints: examining the buffering role of the school’s degree of student focus as rated by its teachers

“…Indeed, prior studies have shown problematic parental alcohol use to be associated with mental health problems in the offspring in terms of internalising problems such as emotional symptoms and psychosomatic complaints [ 3 – 9 ], as well as mental and behavioural disorders [ 10 ] including self-injury and suicidal behaviour [ 11 – 13 ]. Although some earlier studies have measured problematic parental alcohol use through, e.g., official register information [ 10 ], military conscription records [ 13 ] or by parental self-reports [ 7 ], much research has focused on the adolescents’ own perceptions of problematic parental alcohol use captured by e.g., the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) scale [ 5 , 6 , 9 ] or by single items [ 3 , 4 , 8 , 12 ].…”