Beyond the Laws: Parental Monitoring, Perceived Acceptability of Underage Drinking and Youth Alcohol Use

• In Event: Parenting adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Alcohol use has numerous deleterious consequences on youth development (Lees et al., 2020). Yet, adolescence is a time when youth are especially prone to trying different substances (Spear, 2018). Therefore, in many countries, minimum legal drinking age laws exist to prevent youth alcohol use, and they may explain the decrease in youth alcohol use observed in the last decades (Inchley et al., 2016). Likewise, parental monitoring and alcohol-related rules are consistently associated with lower substance use; however, the processes explaining these associations are still unclear (Bo et al., 2018). The current study examined adolescents’ knowledge of minimum legal drinking age laws and their perceived acceptability of underage drinking as potential mediators of the links between parental general and alcohol-specific monitoring behaviors, and alcohol use.

The sample included 1154 Belgian adolescents (705 girls; 449 boys; M age = 16.34 years; 54.9% French; 45.1% Flemish) who filled out questionnaires on parental monitoring (including solicitation and rules; Stattin & Kerr, 2000), the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale (Mayer & Filstead, 1979), and two situational vignettes assessing knowledge and perceived acceptability of the minimum legal drinking age laws. We assessed parental alcohol-related rules among the Flemish subsample (Van der Vorst et al., 2005). Age, Belgian region, religion, and gender were also included in the analyses as covariates.

Using structural equation model with alcohol use as a binary outcome, Model 1 revealed that acceptability of underage drinking was a significant mediator of the negative relation between parental rules and the odds of being a drinker, c’ = − .13 (.047), p = .006, CI 95% [−0.073, −0.014]. Model 2 included drinkers only (see Figure 1) and thus, alcohol use as a continuous score. It revealed an excellent fit, χ2 (4) = 3.37, p = .49, CFI =1.00, TLI =1.00, RMSEA = .00 [.00−.05], p = .97. Model 2 showed that acceptability of underage drinking mediated the relation between higher parental rules and lower alcohol use, c’ = − .052, p < .001, CI 95% [−0.082, −0.024]. In both models, parental solicitation was unrelated to perceived acceptability and knowledge of the laws. Model 3 (displayed in Figure 2) was conducted among Flemish drinkers only and showed excellent fit as well, χ2 (1) = 0.70, p = .40, CFI =1.00, TLI =1.00, RMSEA = .00 [.00−.12], p = .62. This model replicates the results from the full sample. Additionally, in Model 3, higher adolescents’ perceptions of parental alcohol-specific rules were associated with lower perceived acceptability of underage alcohol drinking, which was related to lower alcohol use. As expected, the link between parental alcohol-specific rules and alcohol use was also mediated by acceptability of underage drinking, c’ = −0.085, p < .001, CI 95% [−0.128, −0.047].

Results suggest that alcohol use prevention efforts should focus on both general and alcohol-specific parental rules and youth’s perception of the acceptability of underage drinking. In line with this, findings suggest that these factors are more important than knowledge of the minimum legal drinking age laws in preventing youth alcohol use.

Authors

• Catherine Cimon-Paquet, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
  Presenting Author

• Marie-Helene Veronneau

• Cécile Mathys, Université de Liège