Research

High school drinking mediates the relationship between parental monitoring and college drinking: A longitudinal analysis

Amelia M Arria¹ , Vanessa Kuhn² , Kimberly M Caldeira¹ , Kevin E O'Grady³ , Kathryn B Vincent¹ and Eric D Wish¹

¹  Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

²  Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

³  Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

author email corresponding author email

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2008, 3:6doi:10.1186/1747-597X-3-6

Published:	7 March 2008

Abstract

Background

College drinking is a significant public health problem. Although parental monitoring and supervision reduces the risk for alcohol consumption among younger adolescents, few studies have investigated the impact of earlier parental monitoring on later college drinking. This study examined whether parental monitoring indirectly exerts a protective effect on college drinking by reducing high school alcohol consumption.

Methods

A longitudinal cohort of 1,253 male and female students, ages 17 to 19, attending a large, public, mid-Atlantic university was studied at two time points. First, data on high school parental monitoring and alcohol consumption were gathered via questionnaire during the summer prior to college entry. Second, during the first year of college, past-year alcohol consumption was measured via a personal interview. Multiple regression models tested the relationship between parental monitoring and past year alcohol use (i.e., number of drinks per drinking day).

Results

Holding constant demographics, SAT score, and religiosity, parental monitoring had a significant protective effect on both high school and college drinking level. However, the association between parental monitoring and college drinking level became non-significant once high school drinking level was held constant.

Conclusion

While parental monitoring did not directly influence college alcohol consumption, evidence for mediation was observed, whereby parental monitoring had an indirect influence on college drinking through reductions in high school drinking. Initiatives that promote effective parenting might be an important strategy to curb high-risk drinking among older adolescents. More research is needed to understand the nature and degree of parent-child communication that is necessary to extend the protective influence of parents into the college years.