Parents can positively influence their children's alcohol use. One strategy they use is to provide their children with alcohol, believing it is the best way to teach their children how to drink responsibly. The impact of parental supply is not well understood and may be unintentionally harmful. This study will research the consequences of parental supply within the broader context of parent, child and peer relationships. It will help to determine how parental supply influences the different patterns of adolescent alcohol consumption over time, providing essential information to help parents prevent alcohol misuse in their children. Parents can play a pivotal role in prevention of alcohol misuse, but at present we don't know exactly how.
Binge drinking among adolescents is currently being touted as a recent epidemic, but it is a long-standing problem which needs to be addressed. Australian parents are prepared to make a significant contribution; they believe that it is their role to teach their children when, where and how to drink. The impact of parental supply is not well understood. This study will research the consequences of parental supply within the broader context of parent, child and peer relationships. It will help to determine how parental supply influences the different patterns of adolescent alcohol consumption over time, providing essential information to help parents prevent alcohol misuse in their children. Parents can play a pivotal role in prevention of alcohol misuse, but at present we don’t know exactly how.
This study is investigating the impact of parental supply of alcohol on drinking trajectories in Australian adolescents, including how parental supply of alcohol relates to the acceleration or deceleration of harmful drinking trajectories, and how other related factors may mediate and moderate the relationship.
Using a longitudinal design, up to 1,500 parent-child dyads are being recruited from Year 7 in schools across NSW, TAS and WA. Families will be followed up every 12 months for four years, regularly completing surveys online or via mail. Surveys will address areas related to quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption (including supply, supervision and context of supply and consumption), parental modelling of alcohol use, family and peer relationships, family history of alcohol-related problems, alcohol-specific rules and access, and child mental health and behavioural problems. Latent growth curve modelling will be used to analyse the longitudinal data.
1977 families were recruited across NSW, TAS and WA schools during 2010 and 2011. Baseline data collection was completed between October 2010 and January 2012, with 97.2% of recruited participants completing a baseline survey. The first wave of follow-up data has now been completed (October 2011 to January 2013), with 95% of participants having completed a follow-up 1 survey. The second follow-up commenced in October 2012, and will continue through to late 2013. Attrition is expected to be minimal, and a response rate of at least 95% is expected to be achieved for follow-up 2.
Preliminary baseline findings have been presented at several academic events and analyses are ongoing with several publications in preparation.
Presentations
Wadolowski M, Bucello C, Aiken A, Mattick R, Najman J, Kypri K, Slade T, Hutchinson D, Bruno R, McBride N. (2012, June).Young and not so drunk: Sipping, drinking and Australian adolescents. Seminar presented at the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Randwick.
Mattick R, Wadolowski M, Bucello C,Aiken A, Slade T, Najman J, Kypri K, Hutchinson D, Bruno R, McBride N, Vogl, L. (2012, August).Can parents teach their children to drink alcohol responsibly? Or, is one drop a drop too many? Presentationat the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre Annual Symposium 2012, University of New South Wales, Randwick.
Wadolowski M, Mattick R, Aiken A, Bucello C, Najman J, Kypri K, Slade T, Hutchinson D, Bruno R, McBride N. (2012, November). Young and not so drunk: Sipping, drinking and Australian adolescents.Paper presented at The Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Conference 2012, Melbourne.
Aiken A, Wadolowski M, Bucello C, Mattick R, Najman J, Kypri K, Slade T, Hutchinson D, Bruno R, McBride N. (2012, November). Context of Early Adolescent Alcohol Use: First Results from a Longitudinal Australian Cohort. Paper presented at The Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Conference 2012, Melbourne.
Posters
Wadolowski M, Bucello C, Aiken A, Mattick R, Slade T, Najman J, Kypri K, Hutchinson D, Bruno R, McBride N. (2012, August).Sips, drinks & Australian adolescent alcohol use: Is it really what we think? Poster presented at the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre Annual Symposium 2012, University of New South Wales, Randwick.
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