Alcohol consumption among Chilean adolescents: Examining individual, peer, parenting and environmental factors

Abstract

Sanhueza, G. E., Delva, J., Bares, C. B. & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2013). Alcohol consumption among Chilean adolescents: Examining individual, peer, parenting and environmental factors. International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, 2(1), 89-97.   doi: 10.7895/ijadr.v2i1.71 (http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v2i1.71)Aims: This study examined whether adolescents from Santiago, Chile who had never drunk alcohol differed from those who had drunk alcohol but who had never experienced an alcohol-related problem, as well as from those who had drunk and who had experienced at least one alcohol-related problem on a number of variables from four domains - individual, peers, parenting, and environmental.Design: Cross-sectional.Setting: Community based sample.Participants: 909 adolescents from Santiago, Chile.Measurements: Data were analyzed with multinomial logistic regression to compare adolescents who had never drunk alcohol (non-drinkers) with i) those that had drunk but who had experienced no alcohol-related problems (non-problematic drinkers) and ii) those who had drunk alcohol and had experienced at least one alcohol-related problem (problematic drinkers). The analyses included individual, peer, parenting, and environmental factors while controlling for age, sex, and socioeconomic status.Findings: Compared to non-drinkers, both non-problematic and problematic drinkers were older, reported having more friends who drank alcohol, greater exposure to alcohol ads, lower levels of parental monitoring, and more risk-taking behaviors. In addition, problematic drinkers placed less importance on religious faith to make daily life decisions and had higher perceptions of neighborhood crime than non-drinkers.Conclusions: Prevention programs aimed at decreasing problematic drinking could benefit from drawing upon adolescents’ spiritual sources of strength, reinforcing parental tools to monitor their adolescents, and improving environmental and neighborhood conditions.