Do Parenting Styles Influence Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking During High School and College?

For many university students, alcohol use is as much a part of the campus experience as studying for examinations or attending campus sporting events. Parenting styles have been found to influence alcohol use prior to college. This study focuses on the role of parenting styles on students’ high school and college drinking patterns. Participants were 376 undergraduates who were categorized into one of four parenting styles. Participants also answered several drinking behavior questions from various surveys and scores were analyzed according to each of the four parenting styles. The results of this study showed that students who perceived and reported their parents as authoritative had a lower usage of alcohol in high school and reported a significantly lower amount of binge drinking during college. Additional findings illustrated those students who perceived and reported their parents as authoritarian started drinking at an older age. Excessive amounts of drinking in the college population has recently been a topic of growing interest and has been identified as a serious problem on a majority of college and university campuses. According to a national study that sampled almost 17,600 students at 140 four-year colleges and universities, at almost one third of the colleges, more than half of the students binge drank during the two weeks prior to the survey (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & DeJong, 1993). Binge drinking is of particular concern because it has been linked to health problems and legal complications (Wechsler et al., 1993). Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more for women (Wechsler et al., 1993). Many variables have been found to affect the risk of excessive drinking including parenting practices and familial ties, use during childhood and high school, religion, involvement in conventional activities, and belief in a conventional value system (Durkin, Wolfe, & Clark, 1999). This proposed study focuses on the role of family of origin parenting styles on college students’ drinking patterns. We hope to identify patterns that may lead to improvement of the focus and efficacy of alcohol interventions for the college population. Binge drinking has become a major concern for universities across the nation with 44% of U.S. college students engaging in binge drinking (Wechsler et al., 1993). Half of those students admitting to frequent binge drinking have binge drank three or more times in the past 64 KUSMIERSKI, NICHOLS AND MCDONNELL two weeks (Wechsler, et al., 1993). Of the frequent binge drinkers, 73% of the men and 68% of the women indicated “getting drunk” as an important reason for drinking (Wechsler et al.). In spite of these results, less than 1% of binge drinkers, including those who were frequent binge drinkers, said they had a problem (Wechsler et al., 1993). This behavior has been characterized as the foremost public health hazard for college students (Durkin et al., 1999). Besides the problematic health consequences of alcohol use ranging from minor hangovers to more severe blackouts, students also miss class often resulting in poor scholastic performance (Syre & Martino-McAllister, 1997). Binge drinkers also cause problems for others on campus including crimes such as vandalism, rape, and even fatal accidents (Wechsler et al.). Binge drinking by college students also has negative repercussions on the community surrounding the university including property damage. The parenting style shown by a child’s mother and/or father has been found to influence whether he or she will use alcohol. Students with strong emotional ties to family members are less likely to engage in deviant behavior (Durkin et al., 1999). Children whose parents do not set clear rules against or do not monitor alcohol use by children could be at greater risk for alcohol use (Jackson, Henricksen, & Dickenson, 1997). Parenting that is relatively low in warmth and high in hostility predicted greater risk of alcohol and other drug use by adolescents (Johnson & Padina, 1991). In contrast, positive feedback, encouragement, and physical affection from parents predicted lower risk of alcohol use by adolescents (Jackson et al., 1997). Currently, researchers represent parenting styles in four categories: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglecting (Cohen & Rice, 1997). Authoritative parents are controlling and demanding but also warm and receptive to the child’s communication (Cohen & Rice, 1997). Authoritative parents have a specific combination of demanding behavior; setting and enforcing clear rules, monitoring the child’s behavior, and making maturity demands consistent with the child’s development, and responsive behavior patterns such as showing affection, providing comfort and support, being involved in the child’s academic and social development, and recognizing achievements (Jackson, Henricksen, & Foshee, 1998). Authoritarian parents are defined as controlling and detached, less warm and often arbitrary in enforcing discipline. Permissive parents are non-controlling, non-demanding, and relatively warm, in other words, they do not play an active role in guiding or shaping the child’s behavior (Cohen & Rice, 1997). Neglecting parents are characterized by being neither demanding nor responsive, they do not structure and monitor and are not supportive (Baumrind, 1991). There are many significant reasons to examine the relationship between parenting behaviors, the parenting style used, and alcohol use by children. Many studies have shown a strong relationship between the quality of parenting and the development of relatively high levels of self-esteem, behavioral control, and resistance to peer pressure by children and adolescents (Jackson et al., 1997). Evidence has been found to suggest that initiation of alcohol use during childhood greatly increases the risk of use and abuse during adolescence and throughout life. Cohen, Richardson, and LaBree (1994) concluded that parental behaviors are significant precursors to disruptive behavior, vulnerability and succumbing to peer pressure, and substance use by children and adolescents. A study by Cohen and Rice (1997), found that students who smoke and drink perceive their parents as less authoritative than students who do not. The child’s perception of the parents’ demanding behavior, as associated with authoritative style parenting, was found to be a strong inverse predictor of the child’s alcohol use (Jackson et al., 1997). In other words, children that perceives their parents as authoritative use alcohol less than other children. 65 DO PARENTING STYLES INFLUENCE ALCOHOL USE AND BINGE DRINKING While there is support for the relationship between parenting styles and high school drinkers, there is only a small amount of research literature on the relationship between parenting style and college drinking. Wechsler et al. (1993) found that one of the most important factors in determining binge drinking in college, is a student’s binge drinking in high school. The initiation of alcohol use during childhood increases the risk of alcohol abuse during adolescence (Jackson et al., 1997), and increases the likelihood that those individuals will be binge drinkers in college. Students that fit this profile of binge drinkers are almost three times more likely to be binge drinkers in college (Wechsler et al., 1993). In relation to this finding, Jackson et al. (1998) found that parental nurturance, associated more highly with authoritative parenting, was inversely related to adolescents’ reported susceptibility to peer pressure and deviant self-image, both which are significantly high risk factors for alcohol use and misuse. We hypothesized that college students who perceive and report their parents as authoritative will have had lower usage of alcohol in high school and will have reported a significantly lower amount of binge drinking during college. We also expect to find that college students who perceive and report their parents as authoritarian will have started drinking at an older age and will be categorized as frequent binge drinkers. If the hypotheses were supported, it would suggest that parenting practices are related to binge drinking in adolescents and college students. Understanding this relationship can facilitate development of comprehensive programs that involve parents directly in prevention efforts.