Identifying Strategies to Limit Youth Drinking in the Home

The present study aims to better understand the situational, contextual, and social event-level characteristics that contribute to youth drinking behavior in the home.

We used survey data from 1,217 adolescents (15-18 years, 47.7% female) living in 24 midsized, noncontiguous California cities. The study focused on those who reported at least one drink during their last drinking occasion at home or a friend's home (n = 336). We obtained data about total drinks at last event as well as contextual and situational characteristics at last event, including adult presence, number of people present, participant's home or friend's home, ease of alcohol access, and gender ratio. We also gathered information on individual-level characteristics such as past-year drinking behavior, perceived drinking norms, age, ethnicity, and gender. Multilevel Poisson regression models were used to analyze the data.

Among the full sample, the number of people at the event and the perceived ease of access were positively associated with an increase in number of drinks consumed. Among females, having a responsible adult present was associated with consuming fewer drinks. Among males, having more boys at the event was related to consuming fewer drinks, whereas increased perceived access to alcohol was positively associated with consuming more drinks.

Parents may be able to manage or manipulate the home drinking environment to reduce heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems. Future research is needed to explore additional contextual factors that may enable or inhibit heavy drinking.