Onset Drinking: How It Is Related Both to Mother's Drinking and Mother–Child Relationships

Abstract

Employing the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) as a sample of adolescents and their mothers, the present study connected the onset of adolescents’ drinking to certain posited risk and protective factors characterizing their families. Via event history analysis and the discrete-time method, the data analysis involved more than 6,331 pair-interview-year units. The results show that both peer influences and mother's daily alcohol consumption enhance the risk that an adolescent aged between 10 and 14 years will begin drinking. At the same time, the quality of a mother's relationship with her child is an important posited protective factor delaying onset drinking.

RÉSUMÉ

L’initiation à la consommation d’alcool en relation avec la consommsation

de la part de la mère et avec les rapports entre la mère et l’enfant

En utilisant le Sondage national et longitudinal de la jeunesse (NLSY) pour établir un échantillon d’adolescents et de leurs mères, la présente étude montre qu’il existe un lien entre l’âge auquel l’adolescent s’initie à la consommatino d’alcool et certains facteurs de risque ou de protection charatérisant la famille. Par le biais de l’analyse de l’histoire d’évènements et en se servant de la méthode à temps discret, l’analyse des données a incorporé plus de 6 331 unités d’entretien (mère et enfant = une unité). Les résultats obtenus montrent que l’influence exercée par les autres adolescents ainsi que la consommation quotidienne d’alcool de la part de la mère sont déterminants et font augmenter le risque que l’adolescent âgé de 10 à 14 ans se mette à boire. Par contre, la qualité des rapports entre la mère et son enfant joue un rôle protecteur important qui retarde l’initiation à la consommation de l’alcool chez l’adolscent.

RESUMEN

Usando la Encuesta Longitudinal Nacional de la Juventud (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth) para un estudio sobre los adolescentes y sus madres, esta investigación relaciona el comienzo del consumo de bebidas alcohólicas a ciertos riesgos y factores que caracterizan las familias. A través del análisis de la historia de eventos (event history analysis) y el método de tiempo discreto (discrete-time method), el análisis de los datos incluye mas de 6,331 entrevistas en pares. Los resultados muestran que los compañeros y el consumo diario de alcohol de la madre incrementan el riesgo que un joven entre 10 a 14 años comience a beber. De la misma manera, el tipo de relación entre la madre e hijo es un factor importante para prevenir el consumo de bebidas alcohólicas.

Keywords :

• onset drinking
• mother’s drinking
• mother–child relationship
• event history analysis
• Adolescence
• Longitudinal study

THE AUTHORS

Celia C. Lo, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Alabama. Her research interests include the sociology of drugs and alcohol, drugs and crime, substance abuse treatment, and juvenile delinquency.

Tyrone C. Cheng, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Alabama. His research interests include welfare reforms, Medicaid policies, and child welfare and drug use.

Notes

1 The reader is reminded to consider that the posited risk and protective concepts and processes are often noted in the literature without adequately delineating their dimensions (linear, nonlinear), their “demands”, the critical necessary conditions (endogenously as well as exogenously, from a micro to a macro level) which are necessary for either of them to operate (begin, continue, become anchored, and integrate, change as de facto realities change, cease, etc.) or not to and whether their underpinnings are theory-driven, empirically-based, individual and/or systemic stake holder-bound, based upon “principles of faith” or what. Editor’ note.

2 Only 114 left-censored records were encountered out of all the children who reported their drinking patterns in all six interviews.

3 The reader is reminded that these nosologies continue to be used as consenualized codes which have little if any scientific meaning being bounded by culture, time, place, the categorizer's needs, etc. Editor's note.