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Parent behaviors are strongly associated with students' substance use in high school. However, there have been few studies the associations of parenting of college students with students' risk behaviors. Furthermore, there have been few attempts to educate parents about informational and relational needs of students leaving home. Freshmen are especially at risk for substance abuse and associated harms; thus, parent training may provide a promising avenue for preventive intervention.
We report data from a pilot study of a preventive intervention, delivered in the form of a handbook, targeting parents of rising college freshmen. The handbook was designed to help parents 1) understand the developmental and situational challenges their student confront as they transition to college; and 2) clarify and discuss expectations for their student’s academic, social, and substance use behaviors while at college. Our hypothesis at baseline was that parent communication, attitudes, and expectations would be significantly associated with students' intentions to use substances once they were living away from home at college.
Method
Procedure: The study took place at a large university in the Pacific Northwest. In summer before students' freshman year we sent a baseline survey to 600 students and parents. 400 parents received the handbook and 200 control parents received only the usual informational materials from the university.
Sample: 32 of the original 600 addresses were invalid, resulting in an effective sample of 568 students (375 intervention and 193 control). One hundred twenty-nine parents (23% of the intervention sample and 22% of the control sample) and 121 students (19% intervention and 25% control) responded to the pretest.
Results
At the time of writing, we report pretest data only; at the conference we will also report posttest data. Students' intent to use alcohol and marijuana at college was negatively associated with parent-reported disapproval of substance use (r = -.30, p = .04) and with students' report of parental disapproval (r = -.32 , p = .002) and parental monitoring (alcohol: r = -.41, p < .001; marijuana: r = -.45, p < .001). Intent to use was also significantly negatively related to students' understanding of their parents' expectations regarding substance use, school performance, romantic relationships, and communication and with parenting practices and values (rs ranging from -.19 to -.33, all ps < .05).
Conclusion
Our hypothesis was strongly supported, which provides preliminary evidence that intervention with targeted parenting attitudes and behaviors has potential to reduce college student substance use. Next steps include analysis of posttest data from late fall of students' freshman year.