The present study is a continuation of a novel program of research focusing on parental influences on college student drinking. College student drinking remains an important public health problem and there is growing evidence suggesting that consequences are increasing for older students aged 21-24. Research has shown that parents are an important part of comprehensive community prevention efforts and effective as a stand- alone prevention approach. Despite the utility of parents, a notable gap exists in the prevention literature after the freshman year. Further, there is a small literature to inform prevention efforts involving parents of college students and they tend to examine a limited number of constructs. Although there have been studies of parent interventions targeting adolescents and college students, no studies have comprehensively examined variables influencing parents'motivations to communicate with college students throughout their entire college experience. To date our own program of research has focused on implementing and evaluating preventive parent-based interventions for typical freshman, high-risk freshman, and high-risk environments. Thus, the examination of underlying variables influencing parents'motivations to communicate with their sons/daughters that will increase the efficacy and reach of future intervention efforts to larger population of students extending past the freshman year represents the next logical step in the continuation of our research program. To this extent, the research will assess and analyze 1800 parent-student dyads longitudinally across the entire college experience to examine the: 1) Examine the processes by which predictors and mediating constructs of parental communication about alcohol, are associated with parent-student communications;2) Examine the processes by which parent-student communications about alcohol predict student drinking mediating constructs and subsequent student drinking outcomes;and 3) Examine developmental changes using a prospective longitudinal design between parent communication constructs and student drinking outcomes through the entire college experience.

Public Health Relevance

College student drinking remains an important public health problem and there is growing evidence suggesting that consequences are increasing for older students aged 21-24. Research has shown that parents are an important part of comprehensive community prevention efforts and effective as a stand-alone prevention approach. Despite the utility of parents, a notable gap exists in the prevention literature after the freshman year. Although there have been studies of parent interventions targeting adolescents and college students, no studies have comprehensively examined variables influencing parents'motivations to communicate with college students throughout their entire college experience. Thus, the examination of variables that influences parents'motivations to communicate with their sons/daughters to increase the efficacy and reach of future intervention efforts to larger population of students extending past the freshman year is warranted.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA012529-10
Application #
8207887
Study Section
Community Influences on Health Behavior (CIHB)
Program Officer
Shirley, Mariela
Project Start
1999-09-24
Project End
2015-12-31
Budget Start
2012-01-01
Budget End
2012-12-31
Support Year
10
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$573,752
Indirect Cost
$44,445
Name
Pennsylvania State University
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Schools of Allied Health Profes
DUNS #
003403953
City
University Park
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
16802
Hultgren, Brittney A; Turrisi, Rob; Mallett, Kimberly A et al. (2018) A Longitudinal Examination of Decisions to Ride and Decline Rides with Drinking Drivers. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 42:1748-1755
Grossbard, Joel R; Mastroleo, Nadine R; Geisner, Irene Markman et al. (2016) Drinking norms, readiness to change, and gender as moderators of a combined alcohol intervention for first-year college students. Addict Behav 52:75-82
Scaglione, Nichole M; Hultgren, Brittney A; Reavy, Racheal et al. (2015) Do students use contextual protective behaviors to reduce alcohol-related sexual risk? Examination of a dual-process decision-making model. Psychol Addict Behav 29:733-43
Hultgren, Brittney A; Scaglione, Nichole M; Cleveland, Michael J et al. (2015) Examination of a dual-process model predicting riding with drinking drivers. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 39:1075-82
Kulesza, Magdalena; Grossbard, Joel R; Kilmer, Jason et al. (2014) Take One for the Team? Influence of Team and Individual Sport Participation on High School Athlete Substance Use Patterns. J Child Adolesc Subst Abuse 23:217-223
Hultgren, Brittney A; Cleveland, Michael J; Turrisi, Rob et al. (2014) How estimation of drinking influences alcohol-related consequences across the first year of college. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 38:1160-6
Varvil-Weld, Lindsey; Turrisi, Rob; Hospital, Michelle M et al. (2014) Maternal and peer influences on drinking among Latino college students. Addict Behav 39:246-52
Varvil-Weld, Lindsey; Crowley, D Max; Turrisi, Rob et al. (2014) Hurting, helping, or neutral? The effects of parental permissiveness toward adolescent drinking on college student alcohol use and problems. Prev Sci 15:716-24
Kilmer, Jason R; Cronce, Jessica M; Larimer, Mary E (2014) College student drinking research from the 1940s to the future: where we have been and where we are going. J Stud Alcohol Drugs Suppl 75 Suppl 17:26-35
Varvil-Weld, Lindsey; Turrisi, Rob; Scaglione, Nichole et al. (2013) Parents' and students' reports of parenting: which are more reliably associated with college student drinking? Addict Behav 38:1699-703

Showing the most recent 10 out of 38 publications