The Association Between Family Environment and Adolescent Alcohol Drinking Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study of Six Chinese Cities

Ruixin Chi; Shijun Lu; Na Zhang; Man Zhang; Kaiwei Guo; Songming Du; Jing Guo; Xiaoqi Hu; Guansheng Ma

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.903216

The Association Between Family Environment and Adolescent Alcohol Drinking Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study of Six Chinese Cities

Front Nutr. 2022 Jun 14:9:903216. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.903216. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ruixin Chi^{1

2}, Shijun Lu³, Na Zhang^{1

2}, Man Zhang^{1

2}, Kaiwei Guo^{1

2}, Songming Du⁴, Jing Guo⁵, Xiaoqi Hu⁶, Guansheng Ma^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
² Laboratory of Toxicological Research and Risk Assessment for Food Safety, Peking University, Beijing, China.
³ Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing, China.
⁴ Chinese Nutrition Society, Beijing, China.
⁵ Epidemiology Directorate, Department of Health WA, Perth, WA, Australia.
⁶ National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Objective: Adolescents' alcohol consumption has lifetime adverse physical and mental health effects. Family environment factors have a significant influence in shaping adolescents' beliefs and habits. We conducted the multicenter cross-sectional study aiming to investigate the association between family environment factors and adolescent drinking behavior in China.

Methods: The study investigated 27,762 middle school students from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jinan, Chengdu, and Harbin. A logistic regression model was used to explore the association between family environmental factors and adolescent drinking behavior. Participants were asked to self-report previous experiences of drinking and getting drunk to access their drinking status. Factors of family environment related to alcohol consumption included: parents' educational level, family economic status, family composition, the number of times parents drank alcohol in the past 30 days, and parents' attitudes toward their drinking behavior. The logistic regression model was used to adjust the demographic confounders, including gender, age, city, location, and smoking status, and to explore the association between family environmental factors and adolescent alcohol drinking behaviors.

Results: Compared with students whose parents prohibited drinking, students who were approved drinking were more likely to drink in this year (OR = 16.544, 95%CI:15.265-17.929, P < 0.001; Full adjustment: OR = 13.111, 95% CI: 12.031-14.288, P < 0.001), drink in this month (OR = 7.791, 95% CI: 7.077-8.565, P < 0.001; Full adjustment: OR = 6.010, 95% CI: 5.439-6.641, P < 0.001). In addition, Low family economic status, not living with the mother, parents' ambivalent attitudes toward their children's drinking and parental drinking were risk factors for drinking among middle school students.

Conclusion: The family environment, especially parents' attitudes, is associated with students' drinking and drunken behavior. Mobilizing the power of parents may play a positive role in the effective prevention and control of adolescent drinking.

Keywords: adolescent; alcohol drinking (MeSH); family; family environment; underage drinking.