The role of adolescent social relationships in promoting alcohol resistance: Interrupting the intergenerational transmission of alcohol misuse

Abstract

Genetic factors contribute to the intergenerational transmission of alcohol misuse, but not all individuals at high genetic risk develop problems. The present study examined adolescent relationships with parents, peers, and romantic partners as predictors of realized resistance, defined as high biological risk for disorder combined with a healthy outcome, to alcohol initiation, heavy episodic drinking, and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Data were from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (N = 1,858; 49.9% female; mean age at baseline = 13.91 years). Genetic risk, indexed using family history density and polygenic risk scores for alcohol problems and AUD, was used to define alcohol resistance. Adolescent predictors included parent-child relationship quality, parental monitoring, peer drinking, romantic partner drinking, and social competence. There was little support for the hypothesis that social relationship factors would promote alcohol resistance, with the exception that higher father-child relationship quality was associated with higher resistance to alcohol initiation ( $\hat{\beta }=-0.19$ , 95% CI = -0.35, -0.03). Unexpectedly, social competence was associated with lower resistance to heavy episodic drinking ( $\hat{\beta }=0.10$ , 95% CI = 0.01, 0.20). This pattern of largely null effects underscores how little is known about resistance processes among those at high genetic risk for AUD.

Keywords: adolescence; alcohol; parenting; peer relationships; resistance.

Figure 1.

Structural equation model examining the influences of mother-child relationship quality, father-child relationship quality, parental monitoring, peer drinking, partner drinking, and social competence on alcohol resistance. The direct effects of parenting variables on alcohol resistance are shown in red. Variances are not displayed.