Purpose: Underage drinking is common and costly. This study examined associations between parent and child drinking using recent United States national survey data.
Methods: We analyzed responses of 740 parent-child dyads from 2020 SummerStyles and YouthStyles surveys. Parents and their adolescent children answered questions about past 30-day alcohol use. We estimated prevalence of adolescent drinking and explored differences by sociodemographics. A multivariable logistic regression model assessed whether parents' drinking behaviors were associated with drinking among their children.
Results: Overall, 6.6% of adolescents drank alcohol, with no significant differences by sociodemographics. Adolescents whose parents drank frequently (≥5 days/month), or binge drank, had significantly higher odds of drinking than adolescents whose parents did not drink or did not binge drink, respectively.
Discussion: Parents could drink less to reduce the likelihood of drinking among their children. Implementation of effective population-level strategies (e.g., increasing alcohol taxes, regulating alcohol sales) can reduce excessive drinking among both adults and adolescents.
Keywords: Alcohol; Binge drinking; Parents; Underage drinking; Youth; YouthStyles.
Published by Elsevier Inc.