Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Trimbos Institute, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019 Sep;43(9):1967-1977. doi: 10.1111/acer.14139. Epub 2019 Jul 18.
Alcohol expectancies (AE), that is, the anticipated effects of alcohol, start developing early in childhood and are important predictors of alcohol use years later. Whereas previous research has demonstrated that parental drinking relates to children's AE, this study aims to test whether exposure to parental alcohol use mediates the link between parental alcohol use and positive and negative AE among children (6 to 8 years) and early adolescents (12 to 15 years).
Longitudinal multi-informant family studies were conducted in the Netherlands among children (Study 1 (2015 to 2017): N = 329; 48.9% boys; M = 4.6) and adolescents (Study 2 [2015 to 2018]: N = 755; 45.6% boys; M = 11.3). Fathers' and mothers' alcohol use in terms of quantity and exposure (i.e., the frequency of alcohol use in 9 family-specific situations), and offspring's AE were collected using online questionnaires.
Structural equation modeling conducted in the full sample and separately by gender revealed the following: For children, no associations were found in the full sample. However, gender-specific results indicated that fathers' exposure was associated with (and mediated) favorable AE. Among adolescents, fathers' exposure was associated with (and mediated) social and coping AE (both boys and girls) and enhancement AE (only boys). Contrastingly, neither mothers' alcohol use nor its exposure was associated with any AE. Although different associations were found by offspring's gender, strong evidence for gender differences was lacking.
This study indicates that, for specific expectancies, exposure to fathers' alcohol use shapes offspring's cognitions about the effects of alcohol, rather than fathers' alcohol use in general. Prevention efforts could focus on lowering the degree to which fathers expose their drinking, which might be more easily changeable than drinking in general.
酒精期望（AE），即对酒精的预期效果，早在儿童时期就开始发展，并成为多年后饮酒行为的重要预测因素。尽管先前的研究表明父母饮酒与儿童的 AE 有关，但本研究旨在检验父母饮酒对儿童（6 至 8 岁）和青少年（12 至 15 岁）的正性和负性 AE 与父母饮酒之间的关系是否存在中介作用。
在荷兰，对儿童（研究 1（2015 年至 2017 年）：N=329；48.9%为男孩；M=4.6）和青少年（研究 2[2015 年至 2018 年]：N=755；45.6%为男孩；M=11.3）进行了纵向多信息源家庭研究。使用在线问卷收集了父亲和母亲饮酒的数量和暴露情况（即 9 种特定家庭情境下的饮酒频率）以及子女的 AE。
在全样本和按性别分别进行的结构方程模型中发现：对于儿童，全样本中没有发现关联。然而，性别特异性结果表明，父亲的暴露与（并介导）有利的 AE 有关。对于青少年，父亲的暴露与（并介导）社交和应对 AE（男孩和女孩都有）和增强 AE（仅男孩）有关。相比之下，母亲的饮酒或其暴露均与任何 AE 无关。尽管根据子女的性别发现了不同的关联，但缺乏强有力的性别差异证据。
本研究表明，对于特定的期望，父亲饮酒的暴露塑造了子女对酒精影响的认知，而不是父亲饮酒的总体情况。预防措施可以集中在降低父亲饮酒的暴露程度上，这可能比一般饮酒更容易改变。
