Original article
Pathways to adolescent alcohol use: family environment, peer influence, and parental expectations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2004.06.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

This study was conducted to examine the relationships among family environment, peer influence, stress, self-efficacy, and adolescent alcohol use and to test for the potential moderating effects of parental expectations regarding adolescent alcohol use.

Methods

Data were obtained from questionnaires completed by high school students (n = 2573) participating in a longitudinal study of substance use and other problem behaviors. Variables were lagged across three time points to reflect a causal sequence relating family environment to adolescent alcohol use through self-efficacy, peer influence, and stress. A latent measure of family environment included adolescents’ perceptions of parental acceptance, parental monitoring, and communication with parents. The latent measure of peer influence included use of alcohol by same-age peers and friends and friends’ approval of alcohol use. Observed scale scores were used for self-efficacy and stress measures, and the latent measure of alcohol behaviors included quantity, frequency, and associated problems.

Results

Structural equation modeling indicated good model fit, χ2 (144) = 831.69, p < .001, comparative fit index (CFI) = .992, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .043 (.040, .046). Family environment exerted significant indirect effects on adolescent alcohol use through peer influence, self-efficacy, and stress, and parental expectations significantly moderated all structural paths.

Conclusions

Parental expectations of adolescent alcohol use significantly moderated all structural relationships, and greater parental disapproval was associated with less involvement with friends and peers who use alcohol, less peer influence to use alcohol, greater self-efficacy for avoiding alcohol use, and lower subsequent alcohol use and related problems.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample for this study was selected from a larger, longitudinal investigation of adolescent alcohol use. Approximately 3620 students from 11 high schools in six districts in the Houston area completed comprehensive questionnaires each semester starting in the spring of 9th grade, 1997, and ending in the spring of 12th grade, 2001. All of the school districts were very similar in terms of socioeconomic status, serving predominantly lower to middle class, blue-collar working families. Criteria

Preliminary analyses

The variance-covariance matrix and the correlations among all manifest variables included in the hypothesized model are displayed in Table 1. Variances are presented on the diagonal, covariances are below the diagonal, and correlations are above the diagonal. The zero-order correlations displayed in Table 1 document the significant relationships among all of the exogenous and endogenous variables included in the hypothesized model. Asterisks indicate that all the inter-correlations are

Discussion

Our model, based on longitudinal data and confirmatory testing of the influence of parents on peer factors, confirms and extends previous work on the protective role of family relationships in adolescent health behavior [18], [21]. The current findings further support the importance of the family environment and positive parenting practices in the direct and indirect reduction of adolescent alcohol use [3], [4], [5], [16]. Although the influence of peers on alcohol use was of greater magnitude,

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, No. R01 AA08864. We express our appreciation to Irene Easling, Dr.P.H., for her comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and to J. Greg Getz, Ph.D. and Gerald Adams, Ed.D. for their contributions in conducting the longitudinal project.

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