The moderating effects of alcohol use with and without parent permission on alcohol risk communication in early adolescence

• Published in: Addictive behaviors 2022-03, Vol.126, p.107174-107174, Article 107174
• Main Authors: Ramer, Nolan E., Colder, Craig R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent alcohol use; Alcohol Drinking; Alcohol risk communication; Child; Communication; Drinking with parent permission; Drinking without parent permission; Female; Humans; Male; Parent-Child Relations; Parents; Underage Drinking
• ISSN: 0306-4603; 1873-6327
• DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107174

•Drinking with and without parent permission both predict later adolescent drinking.•Adolescent alcohol experience moderated alcohol risk communication (ARC) effects.•Frequent ARC modestly reduced risk for youth who drank with and without permission.•ARC was unrelated to drinking at other combinations of past drinking experience. The frequency of parental alcohol risk communication (ARC) is considered an integral component of socializing youth about alcohol, but the literature offers mixed findings on whether such communication is protective. Early adolescents’ prior drinking experiences may moderate the effectiveness of ARC, but evidence for such an interaction is inconsistent. One limitation of this work considering prior drinking experience is that it has not distinguished drinking with versus without parental permission. Parents are one of the earliest sources of information about alcohol use and many parents view allowing adolescents to drink alcohol with permission as a harm reduction strategy, despite some work suggesting the opposite effect. Using a random effects multilevel regression, we tested the unique moderating effects of drinking with and without parental permission on the prospective association between alcohol risk communication and later drinking without parental permission. Adolescent and parent dyads completed 3 annual assessments (first assessment mean age = 12.6, 52% girls, 76% White/non-Hispanic). Results supported a three-way interaction. There was a modest protective effect of parental ARC on later adolescent drinking, but only for adolescents who had prior experience drinking both with and without parental permission. For all other combinations of prior drinking experience, parental communication was not prospectively related to later drinking. These results help clarify the mixed literature on alcohol communication and suggests that ARC may help reduce some of the risk associated with allowing youth to drink alcohol but only for youth who also have experience with alcohol outside of parental supervision.