Adolescent drinking, social identity, and parenting for safety : Perspectives from Australian adolescents and parents

We explored young people and parents' views on adolescent drinking and safety in the locations where drinking may occur. Focus groups with adolescents and parents showed that many believed adolescent drinking and drunkenness is normative. Younger adolescents had more negative views of adolescent drinkers than their older peers. Adolescent drinking occurred in private settings and parents made decisions about allowing their adolescent children to attend social events based on the level of safety attributed to the location. If adolescent drinking was likely then home was the preferred location as it provided scope for risk minimisation. Positive portrayals of non-drinking adolescents and information to assist parents' decision-making are needed

Stealing a car to be a man : the importance of cars and driving in the gender identity of adolescent males

Nationally vehicle theft is associated with approximately 40 fatalities per year with an estimated annual cost of one billion dollars. During 2000 - 2001 almost 139,000 motor vehicles (cars, motor cycles, campervans, and trucks) were stolen across Australia. Vehicle theft is an overwhelmingly adolescent male crime yet gender has not been considered in either policy or program initiatives.----- This thesis used Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity theory to examine the relationships between vehicle theft, offending, and adolescent male gender identity. Four central research questions were posed:----- 1. Is vehicle theft a gendered behaviour, that is, do some adolescent males engage in vehicle theft to create a particular adolescent male gender identity?----- 2. Do vehicle theft offenders engage in other offending behaviours?----- 3. Are these other offences also used to create a particular adolescent male gender identity and----- 4. Will the use of a variety of gender-related scales to measure gender identity support Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity Theory that gender identity is multifactorial?----- Study One Parts A and B provided the empirical basis for Studies Two and Three. Part A of Study One examined the &quotmaleness" of vehicle theft and two other problem behaviours: problem drinking and traffic offence involvement. Cross-sectional and longitudinal methodologies were used to investigate a representative sample of 4,529 male high school students in relation to vehicle theft, problem drinking, and traffic offence involvement as a novice driver. Results indicated that &quotmaleness" was significantly related to vehicle theft, problem drinking, and traffic offence involvement. Subsequent analyses, based on Jessor's Problem Behaviour Theory, found a significant relationship between vehicle theft offenders and problem drinking. Study One Part B examined the relationship between masculinity as measured by the Australian Sex Role Scale (ASRS) and problem drinking in a rural sample of 1,248 male high school students. Using a cross sectional methodology, Masculine students were more likely than students in the other gender trait groups to report a range of problem drinking behaviours. Contrary to previous research, both socially desirable and socially undesirable masculine traits were significantly related to most problem drinking behaviours.----- Having established significant relationships between &quotmaleness" and vehicle theft and masculinity and the adolescent problem behaviour of underage drinking, Study Two qualitatively examined the perceptions of adolescent males with histories of vehicle theft in relation to &quotdoing masculinity". Using semi-structured interviews, 30 adolescent males, clients of the juvenile justice system were asked &quotwhat do you have to do to be a man?" Vehicle theft was clearly identified as a masculine defining behaviour as were other offending behaviours. Overall, participants nominated very traditional behaviours such as having a job and providing financially for families as essential behaviours in &quotdoing masculinity". It was suggested that in the absence of legal options for creating a masculine gender identity, some adolescent males adopted more readily accessed illegal options. Study Two also canvassed the driving behaviour of adolescent males in stolen vehicles. Crash involvement was not uncommon. Speed, alcohol, and the presence of other adolescent males were consistent characteristics of their driving behaviour. Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants were similar in their responses.----- Study Three compared the gender identity of offender and non-offender adolescent males as measured by three gender-related measures: the ASRS, the Toughness Subscale of the Male Role Norm Scale (TSMRNS) and the Doing Masculinity Composite Scale (DMCS). While the ASRS measured gender traits, the TSMRNS measured masculinity ideology. The DMCS was developed from the responses of participants in Study Two and sought to measure how participants &quotdo masculinity". Analyses indicated vehicle theft was endorsed by just over a third of the sample as a masculine defining behaviour. Overall, offenders were again very traditional in the behaviours they endorsed. When compared to non-offenders, offenders were more likely to endorse illegal behaviours in &quotdoing masculinity" while non-offenders were more likely to endorse legal behaviours. Both offenders and non-offenders strongly endorsed having a car and the ability to drive as masculine defining behaviours.----- In relation to gender traits, non-offenders were more likely than offenders to be classified as Masculine by the ASRS. Surprisingly offenders were more likely to be classified as Androgynous. In relation to masculinity ideology, offenders and non-offenders were similar in their results on the TSMRNS however offenders were more likely to endorse beliefs concerning the need to be tough. Overall Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders were similar in their responses though Indigenous males were more likely to endorse beliefs concerning the need to be tough. Spence's Multifactorial Gender Identity theory was supported in that the relations between the three gender-related measures were significant but low.----- Results confirmed that vehicle theft was endorsed by a minority of participants as a gendered behaviour. Other offending behaviours were also endorsed by some adolescent males as means to create masculine gender identity. Importantly though both offenders and non-offenders endorsed very traditional behaviours in relation to &quotdoing masculinity". The implications for policy and program initiatives include the acknowledgement of gender identity as an important component in relation to vehicle theft and offending and the desire of adolescent male offenders to engage in legal, traditional male behaviours. In the absence of legal avenues however, some adolescent males may use illegal behaviours to create gender identity. Cars and driving also feature as important components of gender identity for both offenders and non-offenders and these needs to be considered in relation to road safety initiatives

Adolescent drinking in Chile: the role of school socioeconomic environment in relation to parental and peer influences.

School socioeconomic environment in relation to adolescent drinking has hardly been studied. Taking Chile as an example of a highly socially stratified education system, this study focused on how adolescent drinking patterns relate to school socioeconomic environment. Two potential mechanisms for this relationship were examined: interaction with parental supervision and mediation by friends’ drinking behaviours. Multilevel analyses were conducted on cross-sectional data with a four-level nested structure: students (L1), school classes (L2), schools (L3) and municipalities (L4). Individual-level information was extracted from a nationally representative survey (N=58,148, aged 13 to 18) conducted in 2013 and linked to school-level data (N=1,687). Multilevel logistic regression was used to analyse non-binge drinking (vs. non-drinking) and binge drinking (vs. non-binge drinking). The frequency of binge drinking was analysed using multilevel zero-inflated Poisson regression. Models were stratified by gender and adjusted for sociodemographic and parental characteristics and school type. The results showed that both non-binge drinking and binge drinking were socioeconomically patterned at school level. Boys and girls from more socially disadvantaged schools were less likely to drink alcohol than those from more advantaged schools. Within the group of drinkers, school social disadvantage was positively associated with binge drinking in boys and girls. Results also suggested that boys attending socially advantaged schools were likely to binge drink. However, the number of events of binge drinking in the past month was unrelated to school socioeconomic environment. Both parental knowledge of children’s whereabouts and school socioeconomic environment were independently associated with adolescent drinking patterns. There was no evidence to suggest mediation through levels of friends’ drinking within the school context. Schools play a role shaping adolescent drinking and should be integrated into a multilevel approach to tackle adolescent alcohol use, especially binge drinking

The relationship of parental support, control attempts and power to adolescent drinking

Adolescent alcohol consumption has become a topical issue with the overwhelming majority of high school students having had some experience with alcohol. However, a noticeable gap in the literature exists in relation to the influence of parental behaviors on adolescent drinking. This study examined the relationship of parental support, induction, coercion, and power to adolescent drinking level within the context of social exchange theory. A self-administered questionnaire, completed by 87 male and 104 female freshman college students, measured perceived childrearing behaviors and parental power. Adolescent drinking was scored on a six-point scale ranging from abstinence to heavy drinking. The data were trichotomized into low, medium and high levels and then analyzed by the chi square test of independence. Sex of parent and power were controlled

Adolescent Binge Drinking Leads to Changes in Alcohol Drinking, Anxiety, and Amygdalar Corticotropin Releasing Factor Cells in Adulthood in Male Rats

Heavy episodic drinking early in adolescence is associated with increased risk of addiction and other stress-related disorders later in life. This suggests that adolescent alcohol abuse is an early marker of innate vulnerability and/or binge exposure impacts the developing brain to increase vulnerability to these disorders in adulthood. Animal models are ideal for clarifying the relationship between adolescent and adult alcohol abuse, but we show that methods of involuntary alcohol exposure are not effective. We describe an operant model that uses multiple bouts of intermittent access to sweetened alcohol to elicit voluntary binge alcohol drinking early in adolescence (∼postnatal days 28–42) in genetically heterogeneous male Wistar rats. We next examined the effects of adolescent binge drinking on alcohol drinking and anxiety-like behavior in dependent and non-dependent adult rats, and counted corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) cell in the lateral portion of the central amygdala (CeA), a region that contributes to regulation of anxiety- and alcohol-related behaviors. Adolescent binge drinking did not alter alcohol drinking under baseline drinking conditions in adulthood. However, alcohol-dependent and non-dependent adult rats with a history of adolescent alcohol binge drinking did exhibit increased alcohol drinking when access to alcohol was intermittent. Adult rats that binged alcohol during adolescence exhibited increased exploration on the open arms of the elevated plus maze (possibly indicating either decreased anxiety or increased impulsivity), an effect that was reversed by a history of alcohol dependence during adulthood. Finally, CRF cell counts were reduced in the lateral CeA of rats with adolescent alcohol binge history, suggesting semi-permanent changes in the limbic stress peptide system with this treatment. These data suggest that voluntary binge drinking during early adolescence produces long-lasting neural and behavioral effects with implications for anxiety and alcohol use disorders

Differential Perception And Adolescent Drinking In The United States: Preliminary Considerations

This paper addresses adolescent drinking from a perspective very similar to Sutherland\u27s differential association theory. Drinking occurs when positive perceptions of drinking outweigh or outnumber negative ones. Our research focuses on images of drinking communicated by rationalized sources organized specifically to shape perceptions of drinking. We call these organizations agencies and assess their impact on perceptions of drinking. It is our contention that the political economic context of the United States in which these agencies function is such that positive images of drinking outnumber and outweigh negative ones, and that this is an important factor contributing to adolescent drinking

Do drinking motives mediate the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and alcohol use among adolescents?

Funding: Funding for the Scottish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children was provided by NHS Scotland. This work was also supported by the 600th Anniversary Ph.D. Scholarship which was awarded to Gina Martin by the University of St Andrews.Adolescents not only vary in their alcohol use behavior but also in their motivations for drinking. Young people living in different neighborhoods may drink for different reasons. The aims of this study were to determine if neighborhood characteristics were associated with adolescent drinking motives, and whether drinking motives mediate the relationship between neighborhood context and regular alcohol use. Data from the Scottish Health Behaviours in School-aged Children 2010 survey of students in their 4th year of secondary school were used. The study included 1119 participants who had data on neighborhood characteristics and had used alcohol in the past year. Students were asked questions about the local area where they lived, their alcohol use, and their motives for drinking alcohol, based on the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Revised Short Form (DMQR-SF). Multilevel multivariable models and structural equation models were used in this study. Coping motives showed significant variation across neighborhoods. Structural equation models showed coping motives mediated the relationships between neighborhood deprivation, living in an accessible small-town, and neighborhood-level disorder with regular alcohol use. Public health policies that improve neighborhood conditions and develop adaptive strategies, aimed at improving alcohol-free methods for young people to cope better with life’s stresses, may be particularly effective in reducing inequalities in adolescent alcohol use if targeted at small towns and areas of increased deprivation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Adolescent alcohol use and misuse : the influence of perceived family socialization factors

Alcohol-related problems are a worldwide phenomenon and, in the latter part of the twentieth century, have generated substantial academic interest. Some of this research has focussed on the alcohol use and misuse of young people. The present thesis falls squarely into this area, bringing to the investigation of adolescent drinking behaviour an emphasis on family environment from recent studies into problem drinking. The aim of this study, therefore, was to increase understanding of the formation of early drinking patterns by investigating perceived family socialization factors associated with self-reported adolescent alcohol use and misuse. The results should have implications for alcohol education and intervention strategies in the U.K.. Research into problem drinking and drug use/misuse, previous adolescent drinking research, developmental psychology, social psychology, family psychology, family systems and the sociology of deviance all informed this thesis, by contributing to the development of a theoretical model of family socialization influences on adolescent drinking behaviour. Two main areas of family environmental influence are outlined in this model, and demographic and structural variables form a third component of the model. In this study, family process behaviours are viewed as those aspects of family relationships and interactional styles which are important in the socialization of adolescent behaviours and the internalization of norms, are non-alcohol specific, and are characterized by two major dimensions of family functioning - support and control. Underlying the role of alcohol-specific family behaviours in the development of adolescent drinking is family social learning, which is characterized by family models and social reinforcement for drinking. The main study involved administering a fully piloted questionnaire to a large, cross-sectional, random sample of school students, aged 11-18, in Humberside (N=4386). In addition, a small number of semi-structured interviews were carried out, and each written up as a case study, to supplement the quantitative questionnaire data. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed on three levels. Descriptive statistics are presented and comparisons made with information from previous studies. ANOVA's tested for disordinal interactions and for nonlinear effects of family socialization variables on adolescent drinking behaviour. As no marked non-linear patterns or disordinal interactions were found a third level of analysis was carried out, involving structural equation modelling techniques. The main results from the study are summarized below: (i)As expected, both heavy drinkers and non/very light drinkers were more likely to report extreme patterns of family socialization behaviours. Low support and control, indifferent parents and more frequent family drinking were all linked with more self-reported adolescent drinking, whilst high support and control, disapproving parents and non/light family drinking were all linked with less adolescent drinking. The family profile linked with normative levels of adolescent drinking was moderate support and control, a moderating parental attitude, and moderate (mid-range) family drinking. (ii)Multivariate analyses pointed to the predominantly independent and additive effect of each family socialization variable on adolescent drinking behaviour. (iii)On the whole, family social learning variables, particularly parental attitude, were more important statistical predictors of adolescent drinking behaviour than family process variables. (iv)Contrary to predictions, when each school year/sex group was examined separately, an interesting transitional effect was found. For younger males and females, family social learning variables were significant predictors of drinking behaviour, but family process variables were not. However, in older year groups, the effect of family support and control on , drinking behaviour increased whilst, in a complementary fashion, the effect of family models and, in particular, parental attitude, decreased. (v)As expected, knowledge of friends' drinking predicted the respondent's drinking behaviour, but the impact and pattern of family socialization influences on drinking behaviour was not moderated by this peer influence variable. In addition, knowledge of friends' drinking was not as important, statistically, as family social learning influences. The thesis concludes by discussing the above findings and commenting on the generalizability of the results and the implications of the results for current alcohol education paradigms and for future research. The value of the family socialization model for the investigation of other adolescen

Adolescent Drinking and High School Dropout

This paper estimates the effect of binge and frequent drinking by adolescents on subsequent high school dropout using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Young Adults. We estimate an instrumental variables model with an indicator of any past month alcohol use, which is by definition correlated with heavy drinking but should have minimal additional impact on educational outcomes, as the identifying instrument, and also control for a rich set of potentially confounding variables, including maternal characteristics and dropout risk factors measured before and during adolescence. In comparison, OLS provides conservative estimates of the causal impact of heavy drinking on dropping out, implying that binge or frequent drinking among 15 %uF81816 year old students lowers the probability of having graduated or being enrolled in high school four years later by at least 11 percent. Overidentification tests using two measures of maternal youthful alcohol use as additional instruments support our identification strategy.

Binge drinking among adolescents in Russia: prevalence, risk and protective factors.

Despite evidence that alcohol misuse has been having an increasingly detrimental effect on adolescent wellbeing in Russia in recent years this phenomenon has been little researched. Using data from 2112 children from the Arkhangelsk Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) 2003, this study examined which factors acted as 'risk' or 'protective' factors for adolescent binge drinking within three domains we termed the 'family environment', the 'alcohol environment' and 'deviant behaviour'. The results showed that in the presence of comparatively moderate levels of binge drinking among both boys and girls, being able to access alcohol easily, being unaware of the risks of binge drinking and having peers who consumed alcohol increased the risk of adolescent binge drinking - as did playing truant, smoking and marijuana use, while parental warmth was protective against binge drinking for girls. Our finding that risk and protective factors occur across domains suggests that any interventions targeted against adolescent binge drinking may need to simultaneously focus on risk behaviours in different domains, while at the same time, broader social policy should act to limit the availability of alcohol to adolescents in Russia more generally