Trends in alcohol use among Hawai'i adolescents.

It is important to review trends in youth alcohol use over time in order to effectively tailor prevention programs to address those trends. This article reviews data on alcohol use behaviors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Hawai'i from 1993 to 2007. Five alcohol use indicators were examined and stratified by grade level, from 9th grade through 12th grade. Significant drops in nearly all indicators are seen among 9th through 11th graders, but not among 12th graders. This suggests that Hawaii youth are responding well to anti-alcohol messaging as young teens, but a different approach may be needed to target older teens.

The impact of parent-child discussions and parent restrictions on adolescent alcohol consumption.

The impact of parent influence on adolescent drinking behavior has been extensively researched, but remains unclear. This assessment used data from a survey administered in after school programs in Maui County to further examine parents' role in preventing underage drinking. Two factors were explored for their impacts on drinking behavior: parent-child discussions and perceived parent sanctioning of alcohol use. Separate analysis was conducted for all respondents and for those who are drinkers. Youth ages 12-17 (n = 572; 46.7% female; 25.2% alcohol drinkers; 16.4% binge drinkers( participated in the study. No significant differences for the reported number of days of drinking (chi-square = 1.38, p > 0.05) and the number of days of binge drinking (chi-square = 0.31, p > 0.05) between those that did and did not have parent-child communications was found. A significant difference was found, however, for the number of drinking days (chi-square = 38.6, p < 0.05) and the number of binge drinking days (chi-square = 39.4, p < 0.05), f or "all respondents" between those who perceived parent restriction and those who did not. These findings suggest that parent-child communication may be most influential when characterized in such a way as to include well-defined restrictions against alcohol use.