Family Environment Predicts Binge Drinking Among Adolescents

Abstract

Introduction

Binge drinking at an early age is associated with other high risk behaviors during adolescence and young adulthood. A child's family environment affects his/her lifestyle choices, which can include heavy alcohol use. In this study we examined aspects of the family environment in 12 year olds to predict future binge and heavy drinking 3 years later.

Methods

658 participants were analyzed from the Project for Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. These participant's caretakers completed the Family Environment Scale in 1994 (Moos) at Wave 1 when the children were 12 years old followed by the Substance Abuse Interview at Wave 2 (1997) three years later. Logistic regression was used to determine how the family environment predicted binge drinking (5 or more drinks on one occasion) in the past month. Potential confounders were: Caretaker's education, neighborhood cluster, caretakers' ethnicity, gender, household income, and socioeconomic status.

Results

The unadjusted analyses suggested that youth with low family control had 2.56 times (1.10 – 5.94) the odds of binge drinking at 3 years follow-up compared with youth with medium or high control. When adjusting for confounders it was found that caretaker's ethnicity made the relationship insignificant. It was theorized that caretaker's ethnicity veiled the relationship by altering the level of family control which affected future binge drinking.

Discussion

Future studies should focus on family ethnicity as well as varied demographic populations to further understand the association between the family environment and future binge and heavy drinking.