Department of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California 90045, USA.
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2011 Jul;72(4):521-9. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2011.72.521.
Parents often look to other parents for guidance, but how accurate are their perceptions? Expanding on existing normative literature to include parents of college students, this study first sought to determine whether parents accurately estimated the attitudes of other parents concerning their college student's alcohol-related behaviors. The effect of these (mis)perceived injunctive norms on the alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors of the parents' own children was then examined.
Participants were 270 college student-parent dyadic pairs who completed independent online surveys. The student sample was 59% female; the parent sample was 78% female.
A structural equation model demonstrated that parents significantly overestimated other parents' approval of alcohol use by their respective child and, further, that these misperceptions strongly influenced parental attitudes toward their own child's drinking. Parental attitudes were subsequently found to be significantly associated with their child's attitudes toward drinking but were only marginally associated with the child's actual drinking, thereby underscoring the mediational effect of the child's attitudes.
This is the first study to document the influence of parental normative misperceptions regarding alcohol use by their college-age children, reinforcing the importance of parental attitudes on children's alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors in college. These findings support the need to complement student-based interventions with parent-based interventions aimed at increasing parental awareness and involvement. Further, the current findings indicate that normative interventions targeting parents offer a promising avenue by which to indirectly and positively influence college students' alcohol use.
父母通常会向其他父母寻求指导，但他们的看法有多准确呢？本研究扩展了现有的规范文献，将大学生的父母包括在内，首先试图确定父母是否准确估计了其他父母对其大学生与酒精相关行为的态度。然后研究了这些（错误）感知的规范性规范对父母自己孩子的与酒精相关的态度和行为的影响。
参与者是 270 对大学生-父母对偶样本，他们完成了独立的在线调查。学生样本中 59%是女性；父母样本中 78%是女性。
结构方程模型表明，父母明显高估了其他父母对各自孩子饮酒的认可程度，而且，这些误解强烈影响了父母对自己孩子饮酒的态度。随后发现，父母的态度与孩子对饮酒的态度显著相关，但与孩子的实际饮酒行为仅略有相关，从而突出了孩子态度的中介作用。
这是第一项记录父母对其成年子女饮酒行为的规范性误解影响的研究，强调了父母的态度对大学生与酒精相关的态度和行为的重要性。这些发现支持了在针对学生的干预措施之外，还需要针对父母的干预措施，以提高父母的意识和参与度。此外，目前的研究结果表明，针对父母的规范干预措施为间接和积极影响大学生饮酒行为提供了一个有前途的途径。
