Trends in alcohol-specific parenting practices and adolescent alcohol use between 2007 and 2011 in the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: Following increased research and policy attention on the harmful effects of alcohol use among adolescents and the implementation of prevention programs aimed at reducing adolescent alcohol use, this study examined whether alcohol-specific parenting practices have become stricter and whether adolescent alcohol use has declined between 2007 and 2011 in the Netherlands. METHODS: Data were derived from three nationally representative cross-sectional studies of 12 to 16-year old adolescents - the Dutch National School Survey on Substance Use (2007 and 2011) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (2009). These data were obtained using self-report questionnaires in the classroom (adolescents, Mage=13.8 years, SD=.04) and at home (parents). RESULTS: Between 2007 and 2011, Dutch parents increasingly adopted strict alcohol-specific practices, except for parents of 16-year old adolescents. Furthermore, adolescent reports of lifetime and last month alcohol use decreased, except for 16-year olds. The quantity of alcohol consumed by adolescents did not change between 2007 and 2011. Alcohol-specific parenting practices were associated with lower adolescent alcohol use. These associations were generally stable over time. CONCLUSION: Our findings are consistent with the recent increased awareness in research, policy and the media about the harmful effects of alcohol on young people. Specifically, they are consistent with the focus of recent prevention efforts aimed at parents to postpone the alcohol use of their child at least until the age of 16. Future prevention programs should also target older age groups (i.e., age 16 years and older) and address the quantity of alcohol consumed by adolescents when they drink.

Mediation and moderation effects of an in-home family intervention: the "in control: no alcohol!" pilot study.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a theory-based in-home family intervention (In control: No alcohol!) on adolescent alcohol cognitions via its putative mediators using a randomized controlled design. In the South Holland region of the Netherlands, a total of 213 children (11-12 years) and their mothers were randomly assigned to the prevention program (108 dyads) and the control condition (105 dyads). Mediation effects were analyzed using pretest and two follow-up measurements (5 and 12 months after baseline). A path model was estimated (using Mplus) to examine the effect of the intervention on the putative mediators (frequency- and quality of mother-child communication, rules about alcohol, establishing a nondrinking agreement, and parental monitoring of the child's whereabouts). Outcomes were adolescents' perceived harmfulness of drinking and intention to drink. Multigroup analyses were performed to examine potential differences across gender. The program led to an increase in frequency of alcohol-specific communication, nondrinking agreements, and parental monitoring. Moreover, adolescents in the experimental condition perceived drinking to be more harmful and had less intention to drink compared to adolescents in the control condition. The effect of the program on adolescent alcohol cognitions was significantly mediated through having more frequent conversations about alcohol, yet only among boys. Although results on actual drinking need to be added, findings indicate that this relatively inexpensive, easy-to-administer home intervention is promising.

Parenting practices and adolescent risk behavior: rules on smoking and drinking also predict cannabis use and early sexual debut.

Previous research has provided considerable support for idea that increased parental support and control are strong determinants of lower prevalence levels of adolescent risk behavior. Much less is known on the association between specific parenting practices, such as concrete rules with respect to smoking and drinking and adolescent risk behavior. The present paper examined whether such concrete parental rules (1) have an effect on the targeted behaviors and (2) predict other, frequently co-occurring, risk behaviors (i.e., cannabis use and early sexual intercourse). These hypotheses were tested in a nationally representative sample of 12- to 16-year-old adolescents in the Netherlands. We found that both types of rules were associated with a lower prevalence of the targeted behaviors (i.e., smoking and drinking). In addition, independent of adolescent smoking and drinking behaviors, parental rules on smoking predicted a lower prevalence of cannabis use and early sexual intercourse, and parental rules on alcohol use also predicted a lower prevalence of early sexual intercourse. This study showed that concrete parental rule setting is more strongly related to lower levels of risk behaviors in adolescents compared to the more general parenting practices (i.e., support and control). Additionally, the effects of such rules do not only apply to the targeted behavior but extend to related behaviors as well. These findings are relevant to the public health domain and suggest that a single intervention program that addresses a limited number of concrete parenting practices, in combination with traditional support and control practices, may be effective in reducing risk behaviors in adolescence.

Effectiveness of the home-based alcohol prevention program "In control: no alcohol!": study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: In the Netherlands, children start to drink at an early age; of the Dutch 12-year olds, 40% reports lifetime alcohol use, while 9.7% reports last-month drinking. Starting to drink at an early age puts youth at risk of developing several alcohol-related problems later in life. Recently, a home-based prevention program called "In control: No alcohol!" was developed to delay the age of alcohol onset in children. The main aim of this project is to conduct a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. METHODS/DESIGN: The prevention program will be tested with an RCT among mothers and their 6 grade primary school children (11-12 years old), randomly assigned to the prevention or control condition. The program consists of five printed magazines and an activity book designed to improve parental alcohol-specific socialization. Parent-child dyads in the control group receive a factsheet information brochure, which is the standard alcohol brochure of the Trimbos Institute (the Netherlands Institute for Mental Health and Addiction).Outcome measures are initiation of alcohol use (have been drinking at least one glass of alcohol), alcohol-specific parenting, susceptibility to drinking alcohol, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and frequency and intensity of child alcohol use. Questionnaires will be administered online on secured Internet webpages, with personal login codes for both mothers and children. Mothers and children in both the experimental and control condition will be surveyed at baseline and after 6, 12, and 18 months (follow-ups). DISCUSSION: The present study protocol presents the design of an RCT evaluating the effectiveness of the home-based "In control: No alcohol!" program for 6 grade primary school children (11-12 years old). It is hypothesized that children in the prevention condition will be less likely to have their first glass of alcohol, compared to the control condition. When the prevention appears to be effective, it can easily and relatively quickly be implemented as a standard alcohol prevention program on a large scale. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Nederlands Trial Register NTR2564.