It's Not Just What Parents Say, It's Why They Say It: Students' Perceptions of Parents' Motives for Alcohol Communication
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Previous work has investigated parents' reports of motives for communicating with their young adults about alcohol. Although parents' self-reported motives may predict intentions to communicate, young adults' perceptions of their parents' motives may be important for understanding young adults' responses to parental alcohol communication. The present study was conducted to explore college students' perceptions of their parents' motives for alcohol communication and to investigate whether perceptions of these motives predict changes in alcohol consumption and related consequences during the transition to college. METHOD: = 306) participated in a longitudinal survey study. Baseline measures at pre-matriculation (Time 1) included assessments of student perceptions of their parents' motives for alcohol communication and covariates (e.g., perceived peer descriptive drinking norms, parental modeling and alcohol communication, and drinking and consequences). At a 1-month follow-up (Time 2), students reported on their alcohol use and consequences. RESULTS: When we controlled for other predictors of college student drinking, results indicated that for each one-unit increase in perceived parental reactive communication motives, the incidence rate of typical weekly drinking increased by 9%, and heavy episodic drinking (HED) increased by 21%. Conversely, the incidence rate of HED decreased by 27% for each one-unit increase in perceived maternal family history communication motives. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that college students' perceptions of their parents' motives for alcohol communication can significantly influence their drinking behavior during the transition to college.
Institutions: Loyola Marymount University, Lehigh University, Fordham University
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G6351076678, G7075461362
OpenAlex ID: W4402580385