Family, religious, school and peer influences on adolescent alcohol use: Alongitudinal study

Objective: In this study, the cross-temporal relationship between family so cial support and adolescent alcohol use was examined. A primary aim was to investigate the mechanisms through which family social support affects drin king among youth. Another aim was to examine reciprocal relationships among the study variables. Method: Four-wave (with 6-month intervals) panel surv ey data collected From 840 middle adolescent boys (n = 443) and girls (n = 397) attending a suburban school district in western New York were analyzed using structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation, Res ults: Analyses revealed that family social support was indirectly associate d with decreased alcohol consumption among the respondents, primarily throu gh variables measuring religiosity, school grades and peer alcohol use. In addition, adolescent alcohol use was directly associated with subsequent in creases in peer alcohol use and later decreases in school performance. Resu lts also showed that receiving good grades in school predicted moderate inc reases in family social support. Conclusions: The findings of this study ar e discussed in terms of the interrelationships that exist among multiple so cializing influences and alcohol use among adolescents.