Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Background: Latino adolescent alcohol use is related to substance use, later life addiction, high school drop out and other negative outcomes. Given the growing population of Latinos in the U.S., understanding the protective factors unique to Latino families can help in better tailoring prevention and intervention techniques. The lack of knowledge on parenting and the parent-youth relationship in Latino families in the context of acculturation and its affects on alcohol use prompted this study. The purpose of this study is to further the understanding of how family mechanisms, specifically, parenting styles in Latino families, affect adolescent alcohol use with particular attention to acculturation. The effects of parenting on alcohol use have not been well established for Latinos. The protective quality of the Latino culture has been demonstrated in research studies indicating that those adolescents who are less acculturated use substances less. However, little is know about how parent acculturation level impacts parenting and how this impacts adolescent alcohol use.

Methods: Secondary data analysis using a sample of Latino adolescents (n=1,887) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health based in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is used to analyze the parenting affects on alcohol use. Parenting was operationalized by how warm and loving the parent was towards their child and how much control they exerted over their daily lives. The parent youth relationship was operationalized by the parents' perception of how much they trust their adolescent, get along well with them, and make decisions together, and acculturation of the parent was measured by parent place of birth. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test a model of the affects of parenting on adolescent alcohol use using peer alcohol use, adolescent place of birth, language spoken at home, and income as covariates.

Results: Results indicated that high amounts of parental control function positively for Latino families and is correlated with adolescents who use alcohol less (standardized beta=-.281, p<.001). Parental warmth significantly reduced alcohol use (standardized beta=-.146, p<.001). Parental warmth caused an increase in the parent-youth relationship (standardized beta=.270, p<.001) which had a direct affect on reducing alcohol use (standardized beta=-.149, p<.001). When families spoke English in the home, parental control decreased which lead to an increase in alcohol use.

Conclusions: High amounts of parental control or monitoring benefit Latino adolescents even as they acculturate. Adolescent perception of parental warmth was not affected by parent acculturation level. A critical examination of the implications for the cultural understanding of parental influences on adolescent alcohol use will be discussed. Findings indicate that there are unique family mechanisms for Latino families that should be considered when developing intervention and treatment options for Latinos.