Communication About Problematic Drinking Between Young Adults and their Parents: An Application of Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory

ABSTRACT

Approximately 80% of college students drink, half of whom consume alcohol in the form of binge drinking. The current study applies Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory to examine the communication about excessive drinking that takes place between parents and their young adult children. Forty college students were asked to report on a moment or incident that led their parents to label their drinking as concerning and were then asked to report on how their parents acted towards the drinking before and after the moment of labeling. Interviews were transcribed and coded. The findings suggest that parents act with inconsistency when attempting to manage their children’s drinking by enacting both reinforcing and punishing behaviors. Parents’ reinforcing behaviors included drinking with their children and buying them alcohol, even after labeling the drinking as problematic. Parents’ punishment behaviors included expressing concern about their children’s sense of responsibility and making their children feel regretful about their drinking. Nearly 88% of the participants were able to recall the moment at which their parents labeled their drinking as problematic. Implications for using inconsistent messages in conversations about alcohol are discussed.

Notes

¹ In the vast majority of interviews, reinforcement and punishment were coded as present, not absent. Consequently, there was a prevalence bias in the coding that rendered Cohen’s kappa an inappropriate measure of interrater agreement (Cicchetti & Feinstein, 1990).