Authors: Alexander Alterot, Mattias Toivainen

Supervisor: Sabina Kapeanovic

Abstract

Adolescents alcohol use is globally a major issue in social work. Research in the field is constantly evolving and has changed from historically having considered a single focus on the relationship between parents and adolescents to an overall perspective where youth is seen as an individual with active choices, and that they are influenced by the context in which the adolescent act. The purpose of this study was to illustrate through a Swedish context the relationship between a youth's alcohol use, parents approach to this and peers use of alcohol. This with a perspective on the influences the youth derives from their different relationships, as well as how young peoples’ alcohol use is affected when the influences are in accord with or in conflict with each other. The current study has received its material from the research program Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA), which has been funded by FORTE, Vetenskapsrådet, VINNOVA, Formas, Stiftelsen Säfstaholm, Stiftelsen Sunnerdahls Handikappfond and Forum region Jönköping. Quantitative data collected by LoRDIA from 1 324 adolescents in grade 8 and 9 have been analyzed. To investigate how adolescents alcohol use is influenced by parents and peers, the data has been analyzed with Pearson's correlation analysis, T-test, Welch's ANOVA test, and Dunnet's T3 Post-hoc test. The results showed that there is positive association between young people's own alcohol use and influences on this from parents and friends. This is in line with previous research. The current study’s main findings were that different influences have variably strong effects on young people's own alcohol use, depending on the nature of the other group’s influences. This indicates an additional complexity. Current study adds a wider overall picture of how young people are affected in their own alcohol use by surrounding influences.

This research is financed by:

Swedish Research Council, FORTE, VINNOVA, Formas.

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