Witnessing Parental Drinking, Parental Monitoring, and Parent-Adolescent Alcohol Risk Communication as Risk Factors for Adolescent Alcohol Use

The aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of witnessing parental drinking, parental monitoring, and parent-adolescent alcohol risk communication on adolescents' drinking habits. Previous research has shown conflicting results, suggesting that each of these aspects may be regarded as both increasing and decreasing the risk of adolescent drinking depending on the situation and perception of these aspects. Latvia has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption among adults in Europe. We conducted a longitudinal quantitative self-administered survey in a web-based format among Latvian school students from 7th grade (T1, mean age 13.49, standard deviation [SD] 0.59) to 9th grade (T3, mean age 15.32, SD 0.59) with the aim to investigate how witnessing parental drinking and measures like parental monitoring and parent-adolescent communication influence adolescents' drinking habits. The results show that witnessing parents drinking significantly increases the risk of adolescent alcohol use (T3 odds ratio [OR] 5.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.71-7.79) and it is the most influential aspect that mitigates the positive effect of parental monitoring. Parent-adolescent communication has no statistically significant effect on adolescents' risk of alcohol use.