PREDICTING 13-YEAR-OLDS DRINKING USING PARENTS SELF-REPORTED ALCOHOL-USE AND RESTRICTIVENESS COMPARED WITH OFFSPRINGS PERCEPTION

This study examined whether offspring's perception of parental frequen cy of alcohol use and restrictiveness towards offspring's alcohol use could be used as a substitute for parental self-reports. Offspring's p erception were compared with parents' self-reported alcohol use and re strictiveness in ability to predict offspring's own alcohol use. Respo ndents were 924 offspring, 642 fathers and 729 mothers. Correlations b etween fathers' and mothers' self-reported frequency of drinking alcoh ol and offspring's reports of parental frequency of drinking alcohol r anged from 0.55 to 0.70. Fathers' and mothers' self-reported alcohol u se and restrictiveness explained less than two per cent of the varianc e in their offspring's alcohol use in regression analyses, while offsp ring's perception of parental drinking frequency and restrictiveness e xaplained about eight per cent of the variance in offspring's alcohol use. These results represent a challenge to studies;of young adolescen ts which interpret offspring's reports of parents' alcohol use as a su rrogate measure of parents' self-reported alcohol use.