Parenting factors associated with reduced adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies

To identify parenting strategies associated with adolescent alcohol consumption that parents can use to implement new national guidelines regarding alcohol consumption by people under the age of 18.

A systematic search of academic literature employing the PRISMA method identified 77 relevant articles. Inclusion criteria for the review were (i) longitudinal cohort studies; (ii) measurement of one or more parenting factors during adolescence or pre-adolescence (between the ages of 8 and 17) as a predictor (iii) outcome measurement of any alcohol use and/or alcohol related problems during adolescence at least one time point after the initial parenting factor was measured, and/or problem drinking in adulthood. Studies were excluded if alcohol use was combined with other substance use or problem behaviour as an outcome variable, or if different parenting factors were combined as a single predictor variable for analysis. Stouffer's method of combining p values was used to determine whether associations between variables were reliable.

Twelve parenting variables were investigated in these studies: parental modelling, provision of alcohol, alcohol-specific communication, disapproval of adolescent drinking, general discipline, rules about alcohol, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, family conflict, parental support, parental involvement, and general communication. We found that delayed alcohol initiation was predicted by: parental modelling, limiting availability of alcohol to the child, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, parental involvement and general communication. Reduced levels of later drinking by adolescents were predicted by: parental modelling, limiting availability of alcohol to the child, disapproval of adolescent drinking, general discipline, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, parental support and general communication.

A number of parenting strategies were identified that parents can use to reduce their adolescent's alcohol consumption. These could be promoted to parents to help them implement new national guidelines on alcohol use.