Perceived Familial Permissiveness Towards Alcohol and High-Risk Drinking Behaviors Among College Students

Purpose. High-risk alcohol use remains a significance public health issue. While there is extensive research supporting the importance of familial attitudes towards drinking and alcohol use among adolescents, less is known about the role of familial permissiveness towards alcohol use and drinking among college students. The purpose of this study is to understand how perceived parental permissiveness towards alcohol use in high school is associated with high-risk drinking behaviors among Texas college students.

Methods. Data are from the 2015 Texas Survey of Substance Use among College Students (N=20,152; 64% female, 85% White, 38% Hispanic/Latinx), a multi-stage cluster designed study representing undergraduates ages 18 to 26 attending public and private universities, colleges, and community colleges across the state of Texas. Students were asked about past month binge drinking and drunkenness, as well as past year consequences associated with drinking and past year drinking and driving. Students were also asked whether their family approved of drinking (light or heavy) when they were growing up and how they would describe their relationship with their parents growing up. A series of logistic regression models were run to determine how perceived familial acceptance of drinking was associated with high-risk drinking behaviors in college. Analyses were run using survey analysis procedures in SAS 9.4 to account for intracampus clustering and controlled for gender, race, ethnicity, year in school, and perceived parental closeness.

Results. Over 39 percent of students binge drank in the past month, 38 percent reported drinking until they felt drunk at least once in the past month, and seven percent had engaged in binge drinking at least six times in the past 30 days. Almost 25 percent of students had driven after drinking in the past year and 35 percent reported at least one consequence associated with their drinking in the past year.

Students who believed their families approved of drinking while they were growing up were more likely to be engaging in high-risk drinking behaviors (binge drinking OR=1.806, p<001; heavy drinking OR 1.498, p<.001; drunkenness OR 1.842, p<.001), to have driven after drinking (OR 1.658, p<.001) and to have experienced consequences associated with their drinking (OR 1.710, p<.001). However, self-reported change in drinking behaviors since high school was not associated with family permissiveness (OR 1.019, p=.744).

Conclusions. Results support findings from adolescent samples that perceptions of family attitudes towards drinking are related to high-risk drinking among college students. Efforts to reduce risky alcohol use should consider the continued importance of the family context.