Shedding light on trends in male alcohol use

Published by admin on Tue, 05/12/2020 - 7:35am

by KENT DAVIS

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

COMMUNICATIONS

SPECIALIST

A new study from Iowa State University researchers in human development and family studies reveals the impact of parent communication on alcohol use among male adolescents.

Olivia Diggs, lead author of the study and a human development and family studies graduate student who received a Ruth and Vincent Mahoney Student Opportunity Fund Scholarship, said the research highlights that parents have an influence throughout their children’s lifetimes.

“The study highlights different intervention points,” Diggs said. “The parenting variables that we looked at, when kids are in that early adolescence age, set them up for continued communication through late adolescence.”

Parent communication, alcohol use connections

The research, published in the December 2017 Journal of Adolescent Health, reveals both the positive and negative effects of parental interactions in relation to their son’s alcohol use.

Trained interviewers videotaped families’ structured discussion tasks, which involved parents and their adolescent conversing about household rules and chores.

Read more in the Jan. 24, 2018 issue of The Ogden Reporter.