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Article Excerpt
AS ADOLESCENTS NOW ENGAGE in problem behaviors at younger ages than in the past, the ability of their parents to recognize the warning signs of such behaviors is increasingly important. Faced with knowledge that their adolescent son or daughter is experimenting with sex, drugs, or alcohol, parents are more apt to intervene to deter such behavior in the future. Researchers have suggested a pathway from parental awareness of their adolescent's risk activities to increased monitoring and communication with the adolescent. Parental perceptions about children's behavior have a decisive role in reducing future problem behaviors (Bogenschnieder et al., 1998). Numerous studies have documented the impact of expressions of parental disapproval on adolescent problem behaviors (e.g., Beck and Treiman, 1996; Jaccard and Dittus, 2000; Li et al., 2000), suggesting that parental intervention can make a difference. Parental sensitivity to their children's risk activities is thus an important component of parental influence.
Despite its central importance, only a few studies have explored how accurate parents are in characterizing the drinking activities of their adolescents (Beck et al., 1999; Bogenschneider et al., 1998; Langhinrichsen et al., 1990). Beck et al. (1999) asked older high-school students to indicate if they had ever engaged in each of five alcohol-related behaviors during the past 12 months: (1) drinking and driving, (2) drinking at home without permission, (3) drinking while out, (4) riding with a drinking driver, and (5) going to places where other adolescents were drinking. The authors identified adolescents who had engaged in each activity and then calculated the percentage of parents who said their adolescent child had engaged in that activity. The percentage of parents who made accurate attributions for the five drinking behaviors was about 30%. This reflects generally low levels of alcohol awareness on the part of parents. Langhinrichsen et al. (1990) asked adolescents between the ages of 10 and 16 to indicate how much alcohol they had consumed over the course of their lifetimes and also asked parents their perceptions of the drinking activities of their adolescent. The correlation between parent attributions and adolescent self-reports was 0.36. About 50% of the parents tended to underestimate the drinking activities of their adolescent children. Bogenschneider et al. (1998) reported similar levels of underestimation. Langhinrichsen et al. explored correlates of parental accuracy and found that parents were less accurate for older adolescents and that single mothers were less accurate than those in two-parent households.
The picture that emerges from these small-scale studies is that many parents are unaware of the drinking activities of their adolescent children. In some ways, this is not surprising, because adolescents are almost certainly trying to hide such behavior from their parents, and apparently they are fairly successful at doing so. Although it is evident that many parents believe that their adolescents do not drink alcohol when, in fact, they do, almost no research has identified factors that bias parents toward "denying" or "being unaware of' their adolescent's consumption of alcohol. If we can understand such factors, these variables can be addressed in parent-education programs to help parents recognize and deal with alcohol-related behaviors on the part of adolescents. The present research focuses on factors that impact the tendency for mothers to underestimate the alcohol use of adolescents who use alcohol on a regular basis. Misperceptions in such cases are important, because these adolescents have a higher probability of developing drinking problems, and parental intervention could be crucial in terms of prevention efforts.
A conceptual framework for parental underestimations
Unless an adolescent is caught directly in an intoxicated state or in possession of alcohol, parents probably infer that their adolescent is engaging in alcohol-risk activity based on their adolescent's behaviors (e.g., going to many social functions) and on their own implicit theory about what variables are related to adolescent alcohol consumption. Research in social psychology suggests three classes of information-processing variables that affect the nature and accuracy of behavioral attributions (Jussim, 1990, 1991, 1993; Fiske and Taylor, 1991). First, the judgment made by the attributor is influenced by attentiveness to cues in the environment that imply performance of the behavior on the part of the actor. Second, the judgment made by the attributor is influenced by the stereotypes and implicit theories that the judge holds with respect to factors associated with the behavior. Third, the judgment is influenced by the overall affect characterizing the relationship between the actor and the attributor.
When applied to parental attributions of alcohol use, the attributions parents make should be influenced by (1) parental attentiveness to cues that imply adolescent alcohol use, (2) parental use of stereotypes about adolescents who use alcohol versus those who do not, and (3) the affective environment surrounding the parent-adolescent relationship (e.g., the quality of the relationship).
Social scientists identify a wide range of variables, related to alcohol consumption, that could influence these key processes and predict parental underestimation of alcohol consumption. We consider four classes of distal variables: (1) demographic variables, (2) family dynamics, (3) indirect cues, and (4) direct cues.
Demographic variables. Theories of autonomy (Langhinrichsen et al., 1990) suggest that older adolescents tend to separate from parents (e.g., Hartup, 1983; Krosnick and Judd, 1982), resulting in fewer shared activities and more covert behaviors. This greater incidence of unshared behaviors could lead to greater parental inaccuracy in characterizing the alcohol-related behaviors of older versus younger adolescents. As adolescents separate from parents, parents may be less attentive to cues that suggest alcohol use, leading to the prediction that mothers of older adolescents will be more likely to underestimate regular alcohol use on the part of their child than mothers of younger adolescents (Hypothesis 1).
Another variable possibly related to cue sensitivity is maternal age. It may be the case that there is a smaller "generation-gap" between the adolescent and younger, as opposed to older, mothers, making younger mothers more attuned to cues that suggest adolescent alcohol use. There is literature to suggest, however, that an opposite dynamic may be operating. Research has suggested that older mothers have more positive attitudes toward child rearing than younger mothers (e.g., Rauh et al., 1990) and that older mothers tend to provide more supportive family environments than younger mothers (e.g.,...
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