Introduction 2005 2005 2007 1994 1997 2005 1999 1996 1992 1991 2000 1993 2002 2000 1977 1991 2006 2006 2002 2004 1997 1993 2003 2000 2006 1994 1993 2000 1996 2004 1990 Alcohol-specific parenting 1999 2005 2004 1999 2005 2003 2005 2006 1995 2006 2003 2006 Current study and expectancies 1 Fig 1 Longitudinal Model of Parental Problem Drinking, Parenting, and Adolescent Alcohol Use  Methods Participants and recruitment 2005 2005 SD SD SD SD 2007 Procedure The families were visited at home by a trained interviewer. In his or her presence all four family members individually filled out an extensive questionnaire, which took about 2 h to complete. The participants were not allowed to consult each other or to discuss the answers. When all family members had completed the questionnaire, each family received 30 € (39 $). In addition, after completion of the first three waves of the project, 5 traveler cheques of 1,000 € (1,300 $) each were raffled among all participating families. Approval was obtained from the Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects on collecting the data. Measure Self-reports were used to measure parental problem drinking and adolescent alcohol use. The four parenting practices were based on adolescents’ reports, reflecting how they perceived their parents’ behaviors. The questions regarding the parenting variables were asked in such a way that the adolescents were able to discriminate between the parenting practices of their mothers and fathers. Problem drinking 1994 1974 1975 1987 1994 1994 General parenting 2000 . 2001 Alcohol-specific parenting 2005 2000 Adolescent alcohol use 1999 2005 Strategy of analyses t 1 1998 2006 1995 1998 1998 1998 1998 1 1998 2006 1998 2004 1998 1980 1990 1993 2000 1998 1999 2004 Results Descriptives on alcohol consumption and problem drinking 1 t t p t p t p < F p PES F p PES 1 p SD M SD M SD SD M SD M SD t p t p t p F p PES F p PES Table 1 Means, standard deviations and percentages of parental problem drinking (PD) and adolescent alcohol use (A) at Time 1 (T1), Time 2 (T2), and Time 3 (T3)  T1 T2 T3 M* SD %** M* SD %** M* SD %** PD father a 2.18 19.4 b 1.99 25.5 b 2.00 22.7 PD mother a 1.57 5.6 b 1.51 8.4 b 1.49  9.1 A younger adolescent a 3.41 n.a. b 8.35 n.a. c 9.76 n.a. A older adolescent a 6.80 n.a. b 10.62 n.a. c 12.08 n.a. Note 1994 p p Correlations between cross-sectional and longitudinal variables r r r r r r r r r r r r Structural equation models 2 Table 2 Fit indices for all models  Father Mother PM AS BC SU PM AS BC SU df 26 30 30 26 27 30 29 28 χ² 36.13 58.73 76.05 41.78 47.92 56.80 78.49 42.95 p 0.09 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.04 CFI 0.98 0.96 0.93 0.98 0.96 0.96 0.92 0.98 RMSEA 0.03 0.05 0.06 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.04 Note Alcohol-specific parenting: permissiveness and alcohol-specific behavioral control β 3 Table 3 Structural parameters estimates of the alcohol-specific parenting practices, parental problem drinking (PD) and adolescent alcohol use (standardized beta weight)  Permissiveness Alcohol-specific behavioral control Fathers Mothers Fathers Mothers Stability paths 1. PD T1–PD T2 .79 .76 .80 .76 2. PD T2–PD T3 .82 .88 .82 .82 3. Parenting OA T1–Parenting OA T2  .68 .67 .55 .55 4. Parenting OA T2–Parenting OA T3 .73 .73 .64 .64 5. Alcohol use OA T1–Alcohol use OA T2 .46 .47 .55 .54 6. Alcohol use OA T2–Alcohol OA T3 .66 .66 .67 .67 7. Parenting YA T1–Parenting YA T2 .75 .76 .50 .49 8. Parenting YA T2–Parenting YA T3  .76 .76 .49 .48 9. Alcohol use YA T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .36 .37 .42 .42 10. Alcohol use YA T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .55 .54 .59 .57 Paths from PD 11. PD T1–Parenting OA T2 .11** .12** .07 −.08 12. PD T2–Parenting OA T3 .05 .03 −.11** −.07 13. PD T1–Alcohol use OA T2 .08 .16** .09 .18*** 14. PD T2–Alcohol use OA T3 .02 .02 .03 .03 15. PD T1–Parenting YA T2 .07 .03 .05 −.02 16. PD T2–Parenting YA T3 .05 .04 −.14** −.15** 17. PD T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .00 −.02 .00 −.03 18. PD T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .19*** .14** .20*** .15** Cross-lagged paths 19. Parenting OA T1–Alcohol use OA T2 .15** .12* .05 .04 20. Parenting OA T2–Alcohol use OA T3 .02 .03 −.02 −.07 21. Alcohol use OA T1–Parenting OA T2 −.01 .01 −.07 −.05 22. Alcohol use OA T2–Parenting OA T3 −.04 −.04 −.10* −.09 23. Parenting YA T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .17** .17** −.23*** −.24*** 24. Parenting YA T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .04 .05 .05 −.03 25. Alcohol use YA T1–Parenting YA T2 .01 .02 −.02 −.10* 26. Alcohol use YA T2–Parenting YA T3 .01 .01 −.12* −.10* 27. Alcohol use OA T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .08 .09 .09 .09 28. Alcohol use OA T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .11* .12* .09 .11* Note p 1  p  p *** p β = p β p β p β = p < β p β p β =  β p β p β = p β p β = p β = p β p β p General parenting: behavioral control and support 4 Table 4 Structural parameters estimates of general parenting practices, parental problem drinking (PD) and adolescent alcohol use (standardized beta weight)  Behavioral control Support Fathers Mothers Fathers Mothers Stability paths 1. PD T1–PD T2 .80 .73 .81 .77 2. PD T2–PD T3 .83 .82 .85 .80 3. Parenting OA T1–Parenting OA T2  .61 .64 .76 .73 4. Parenting OA T2–Parenting OA T3 .70 .70 .76 .72 5. Alcohol use OA T1–Alcohol use OA T2 .54 .53 .53 .53 6. Alcohol use OA T2–Alcohol OA T3 .66 .66 .67 .67 7. Parenting YA T1–Parenting YA T2 .66 .63 .70 .67 8. Parenting YA T2–Parenting YA T3  .63 .73 .69 .70 9. Alcohol use YA T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .43 .42 .43 .42 10. Alcohol use YA T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .58 .57 .59 .57 Paths from PD 11. PD T1–Parenting OA T2 .03 −.06 .00 .07 12. PD T2–Parenting OA T3 −.05 −.04 −.06 −.01 13. PD T1–Alcohol use OA T2 .09 .18*** .10 .18*** 14. PD T2–Alcohol use OA T3 .03 .00 .03 .02 15. PD T1–Parenting YA T2 .06 .00 .08 .03 16. PD T2–Parenting YA T3 −.04 −.12** −.03 −.06 17. PD T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .00 .00 .00 −.01 18. PD T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .20*** .15** .20*** .14** Cross-lagged paths 19. Parenting OA T1–Alcohol use OA T2 .04 .03 −.04 −.07 20. Parenting OA T2–Alcohol use OA T3 −.11* −.18*** −.02 −.02 21. Alcohol use OA T1–Parenting OA T2 −.07 −.05 −.01 −.02 22. Alcohol use OA T2–Parenting OA T3 −.12** −.14** −.06 .01 23. Parenting YA T1–Alcohol use YA T2 −.15** −.14** −.10* −.15** 24. Parenting YA T2–Alcohol use YA T3 −.05 −.08 .07 −.01 25. Alcohol use YA T1–Parenting YA T2 −.04 −.09* −.11** −.08* 26. Alcohol use YA T2–Parenting YA T3 −.05 −.07 .02 −.02 27. Alcohol use OA T1–Alcohol use YA T2 .10* .09 .09 .10 28. Alcohol use OA T2–Alcohol use YA T3 .10* .10* .11* .11* Note p 1  p p *** p β p β p β = p β p β = p β = p β = p β = p β = p β = p β p β = p β = p β = p β = p β p β p Additional analyses β p Discussion 1993 2004 1997 2 1985 1997 2002 1995 Our findings do not imply that problem drinking has no effect on personal cognition or functioning, but suggest that parents are able to regulate their problem behavior with regard to their children and parenting practices. However, parental problem drinking may affect the way in which parents handle alcohol use within the family. Parents with more alcohol-related problems are not more permissive than parents who do not have these problems. Maintaining the set rules by means of alcohol-specific behavioral control, however, does appear to be a problem. 2000 2005 2006 1999 2005 2006 2003 2005 1995 2003 2006 1995 2006 1995 2006 1993 Limitations 1985 2007 2005 Taking these limitations into account, this study is the first to disentangle the prospective relations between parental alcohol-related problems, parenting, and adolescent alcohol use in a community sample using multi-informant data. The results show that parental problem drinking does not substantially and systematically affect parenting, and that parenting influences adolescent alcohol use, but only up to the age of about 14 years. This implies that shared environment factors (e.g., parenting and modeling effects) influence the development of alcohol use in young adolescents. When adolescents grow older, and move out of the initiation phase, their drinking behavior may be more affected by other factors, such as genetic susceptibility and peer drinking.