Examining Adolescent Drinking and Adolescents' Perceptions of Parental Monitoring, Communication, and Parenting Style in a Rural Setting

Research has found that adolescent substance use is highly prevalent in both urban and rural populations and that parenting processes can affect adolescent substance use. The majority of the research pertains to adolescents in urban populations, however. This study explores how adolescents' perceptions of parental monitoring, parent-adolescent communication, and parenting style are related to adolescent frequency of alcohol consumption and binge-drinking in a rural population in Virginia. A sample (n = 3,472) of 7th-12th grade males and females from six counties were examined via secondary data analysis.

Bivariate correlations revealed significant correlations between parental monitoring and communication with both types of drinking in that those reporting higher levels of perceived monitoring and communication reported lower levels of alcohol consumption and binge-drinking. Authoritative parenting was only significantly correlated with frequency of alcohol consumption. Linear regression analyses revealed that parental monitoring accounted for most of the variance with both drinking variables. Effects of gender and grade are discussed.