Parent-child relationships, child temperament profiles and children's alcohol use norms

The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of child temperament, parents' alcohol use norms for their children and parent-child relationship quality to children's alcohol use norms.

Observational and self-report data on these variables were gathered from mothers, fathers and target children during home visits to a purposive random sample of 171 intact white families with a 10- to 12-year-old child, 85 with girls and 86 with boys.

Liberality in children's norms was associated with active, sensation-seeking temperament, liberality in parents' norms and poor parent-child relationship quality. Positive parent-child, particularly father-child, relationships were associated with less liberal child norms even when parents' norms were liberal and children's temperaments were active and sensation oriented.

Positive parent-child relationships have a conventionalizing effect on children's alcohol use norms that moderates the effects of temperament and parental norms. The development of alcohol use norms is best described by transactional models.