Child-parent agreement on alcohol-related parenting: Opportunities for prevention of alcohol-related harm

• Published in: Health promotion journal of Australia 2018-08, Vol.29 (2), p.123-132
• Main Authors: Shaw, Thérèse, Johnston, Robyn S., Gilligan, Conor, McBride, Nyanda, Thomas, Laura T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Adolescents; Alcohol; Alcohol Drinking; Alcohol use; Alcohols; Attitudes; Child; Consumption; Cross-Sectional Studies; discrepancy; Drinking behavior; Drinking of alcoholic beverages; Expectations; Harm Reduction; Health aspects; Health risks; Humans; Injuries; Injury prevention; Parent and child; Parent attitudes; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Perceptions; Prevention; Protective factors; Risk; Risk factors; Risk-taking (Psychology) in adolescence; Students; Teenagers; Underage Drinking; Western Australia
• ISSN: 1036-1073; 2201-1617
• DOI: 10.1002/hpja.39

Issue addressed: Excessive alcohol consumption places adolescents at increased risk of preventable, acute alcohol-related injury. Parental attitudes and behaviours influence adolescents' alcohol use. This study examined alignment in parent and child reports of alcohol-related parenting and whether misalignment related to the child ever having drunk alcohol. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in five secondary schools in [information removed for blinding in Perth, Western Australia] in 2015. All students in Years 7, 10 and 12 and their parents were eligible, and data were matched for 124 child-parent dyads. Alignment of parent-child reports was assessed using kappa statistics. In dyads where the parent reported protective attitudes and behaviours, the association between misalignment and alcohol use was tested in logistic regressions. Results: Overall, child-parent reports were aligned on parents' expectations, knowledge and actions (65% and higher agreed). While alignment on parental expectations seemed to decrease with age, alignment on parental communication and rule-setting increased. Misalignment on reports of parents' expectations was associated with increased odds of the child reporting having ever had alcohol (OR = 5.5; 95% CI = 2.7-47.7), as was parental supply (OR = 20.2; 95% CI = 3.3-121.5), but misalignment on parental communication, rule-setting and knowledge were not. Conclusions: Parent nonsupply of alcohol and disapproval of use were most important in terms of associations with ever drinking.