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. 2025 Jan;49(1):234-243.
doi: 10.1111/acer.15498. Epub 2024 Dec 19.

Parents' perspectives and behaviors regarding their child's access to alcohol: Variation by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood

Carolyn E Sartor  1   2 , Shawn J Latendresse  3 , Kristina M Jackson  2 , Mai-Ly N Steers  4 , Sharon Lipperman-Kreda  5 , Tim Slade  6 , Tammy Chung  1   2
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Parents' perspectives and behaviors regarding their child's access to alcohol: Variation by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood

Carolyn E Sartor et al. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Setting rules about alcohol use and minimizing its availability in the home are known effective parent-level strategies for reducing underage drinking risk. However, parents' restrictions and their perceptions of their child's alcohol access have rarely been considered in combination (e.g., determining if rule-setting consistently accompanies perceived easy access), despite the potential to inform targeted prevention. The current study identified patterns in six parent-reported indicators of their child's alcohol restrictions and access and characterized them with respect to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, community type (urban, suburban, or rural), and neighborhood (dis)advantage.

Methods: Latent profile analysis was applied to Follow-up Year 2 data from the parents of Black, Latinx, and White participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (n = 9586; youth mean age = 12.05; 47.50% girl, 51.32% boy, 0.32% other gender; 14.29% Black, 25.97% Latinx, and 59.74% White) to derive distinct profiles.

Results: Four profiles (subgroups) emerged: High Restrictions/No Drinkers in Household (32.18%), Low Restrictions/High Access (29.58%), High Restrictions/High Access (26.38%), and High Restrictions/Low Access (11.86%). Black and Latinx youth and parents with relatively low educational attainment and income were overrepresented in the High Restrictions/No Drinkers in Household and High Restrictions/Low Access subgroups. By contrast, the low restrictions subgroups were composed primarily of parents of White youth living in advantaged neighborhoods.

Conclusions: Findings support the notion that parents' perspectives and behaviors around youth alcohol access cannot be divided simply into restrictive and permissive. Further, the observed differences by demographic and neighborhood factors suggest the value of tailoring parent-level prevention approaches to consider community norms.

Keywords: alcohol access; parental rules; race/ethnicity; socioeconomic status; youth.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Indicators of restrictions and access by profile.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Demographic and neighborhood correlates of profiles. Differences between observed and expected percentages: Blue cells indicate overrepresented and red cells indicate underrepresented compared with the model expectation. Deeper hues indicate greater degree of deviation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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