2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

327846
Parental relationship quality and heavy episodic drinking development in early adulthood: Differences by gender


Wednesday, November 4, 2015 : 10:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m.

Aubrey Madkour, PhD, Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Heng Wang, MS, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Kristina Jackson, PhD, The Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI
Thomas Miles, MPH, Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Frances Mather, PhD, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
BACKGROUND: Although parental relationship quality (communication frequency, time spent together, closeness) during adolescence is related to less-risky alcohol use patterns in early adulthood, its concurrent influence during early adulthood on heavy episodic drinking (HED) has been understudied, despite evidence that parenting is still important for this age group.

METHODS: National data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics–Transition to Adulthood Study were analyzed. Youth participated in up to four interviews (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011; n=1,512-1,352) between ages 18-25.  At each wave, respondents reported past-year HED and their communication frequency, time spent together, and closeness with each parent (items combined into an index at each age).  Multigroup latent curve models were run in MPlus, with parental relationship quality as a time-varying predictor of HED (separate models for mother and father).

RESULTS: Paternal relationship quality was negatively associated with HED for both males and females at each age; estimated effects did not vary by respondent age or sex (AOR=0.73, 95% CI 0.63-0.85).  Maternal relationship quality was significantly negatively associated with HED at ages 18-19 among both sexes equally (AOR=0.50, 95% CI 0.41-0.61).  Although associations were consistent across age for males, they weakened and became non-significant at ages 20-25 for females (AOR=0.87, 95% CI 0.72-1.04).

CONCLUSIONS: Having close, communicative parental relationships seems to protect against HED in the transition to early adulthood, although for girls such effects appear limited to late adolescence.  Programs to improve relationship quality between young adults and their parents may help curb problematic drinking during this vulnerable period.

Learning Areas:

Epidemiology
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the association between maternal and paternal relationship quality and heavy episodic drinking in early adulthood. Discuss gender differences in the influence of maternal and paternal relationship quality on heavy episodic drinking in early adulthood.

Keyword(s): Alcohol Use, Youth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been conducting research on adolescent and young adult health risk behaviors for over ten years. I am the PI of an NIAAA funded K01 examining contextual contributors to the development of heavy episodic drinking during early adulthood. The analyses for the proposed presentation are part of that work. I conceptualized the proposed presentation and executed the analyses.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 5082.0: Parental perceptions of and influences on children's drinking behavior