Citation

Koning IM, van den Eijnden RJ, Vollebergh WA. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 2014; 75(1): 16-23.

Affiliation

Child and Adolescent Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

24411793

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: There is convincing evidence that parental rules about alcohol are important in curbing adolescents' alcohol use. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which the direct link between alcohol-specific parenting and alcohol use is obtained. In this study, we investigated the mediating effect of adolescent self-control on the relationship between alcohol-specific rules and adolescents' drinking behavior and whether this mediation effect depends on the level of quality of communication.

METHOD: A total of 883 adolescents participated in this longitudinal study at ages 13, 14, and 15 years.

RESULTS: Strict rules predicted lower rates of drinking, but no direct effect of the quality of communication on adolescents' alcohol use was found. A higher level of self-control was related to lower rates of drinking in adolescents. The indirect effect of rules about alcohol through adolescents' self-control was statistically significant, yet only in adolescents with high qualitative parent-child communication about alcohol. In adolescents with low quality of parent-child communication, self-control was not related to drinking.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings imply that strict rule setting in combination with qualitative parent-child communication is an important target for prevention. In addition, findings point at the importance of high qualitative parent-child communication for adolescents' motivation to engage in self-control to avoid drinking. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 75, 16-23, 2014).

Language: en