Predictors of Youth Attitudes Towards Alcohol Use

Background: Youth attitudes towards alcohol and other drugs has been shown to have a strong association with alcohol use. Past studies have found that youth who disapprove of drugs or find drugs harmful are less likely to use drugs (e.g. Hansen & Hansen, 2016; Wright et al., 2016). Peer substance use, parental support and monitoring, and self-esteem have been shown to be associated with adolescent substance use (e.g. Dever et al., 2012; Patrick & Schulenberg, 2010, 2014; Pilgrim et al., 2006). Although we know that these factors are associated with adolescent substance use, it is unclear if youth attitudes towards drug use is influencing these relationships. Using cross-sectional data, this study examines the roles of self-esteem, parent emotional support, and peer alcohol use on alcohol disapproval among adolescents.

Methods:This study uses data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) series, a nationally representative, cross-sectional study of eighth and tenth grade students from public and private schools throughout the United States (Johnston et al., 2015). To increase power, data was combined from the four most recent cohorts (2012-2015). A hierarchical regression was conducted to examine the predictive roles of self-esteem, parent emotional support, and peer alcohol use on alcohol disapproval. The hierarchical regression consisted of two models. The first model included the control variables: year, grade, gender, race, and school region, while the second model included self-esteem, parent emotional support, and friends’ alcohol use. A path analysis will also be conducted to assess whether disapproval of alcohol is mediating the relationships between alcohol use with self-esteem, parent emotional support, and peer alcohol use.

Results: Approximately 25% of students reported having no parent emotional support. Furthermore, 29.8% of students claimed that none of their friends drank alcohol, while 45.9% reported that few to some of their friends’ drink alcohol. The mean for alcohol disapproval was 3.27 (SD= 1.96) and the mean for self-esteem was 2.93 (SD=0.93).

According to the regression model, the strongest predictor of alcohol disapproval was friends’ alcohol use. Students who reported that the majority of their friends’ drink alcohol were predicted to have significantly lower disapproval scores than students who reported that the none of their friends’ drink alcohol (β=-.38, p<.001).  Self-esteem was also found to be a statistically significant predictor of alcohol disapproval (β =0.08, p<.001), where higher self-esteem scores predicted higher alcohol disapproval. Furthermore, students with no parent emotional support had significantly lower alcohol disapproval scores compared to students who reported a high level of parent emotional support (β =-0.10, p<.001).   

Implications: Findings from the regression suggest that self-esteem, parent emotional support, and peer alcohol use are predictors of disapproval towards alcohol use. Findings from the path analysis will indicate whether alcohol disapproval mediates the relationships of peer alcohol use, self-esteem, and parent emotional support with alcohol use. These results will allow for a better understanding of how these factors relate and ultimately predict alcohol use among adolescents, which can be used to improve prevention and intervention programs for youth.