Prior research has linked perceived parental approval of alcohol consumption to earlier alcohol initiation and higher quantities consumed by high school and college students. A new study investigated the relationship between perceived parental permissibility of alcohol use (PPP) and college students’ drinking quantity and likelihood of binge drinking across multiple years of college. Data from the University Life Study, a longitudinal study of U.S. college students’ daily lives and risk behaviors, were analyzed. Participants (N = 744) completed a longer, web-based survey followed by 14 consecutive daily web-based surveys for seven semesters. Participants were first-year students under 21 years of age at baseline. The sample was racially and ethnically diverse and 51% female. Students were asked to estimate the maximum amount of alcohol they believed their parents would deem acceptable for them to consume on one occasion when they were in 12th grade and at multiple time points in college. Students also annually reported their past-month frequency of binge drinking and maximum number of drinks consumed on one occasion. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs), estimated using Poisson distributions, were used to determine whether PPP changed over time and whether mean PPP levels predicted drinking outcomes over time. Using k-cluster analysis, students were sorted into one of four clusters representing different patterns of PPP change. Two additional GLMMs were estimated using Poisson distribution to predict drinking outcomes using PPP cluster membership as a predictor. Results showed the average student engaged in binge drinking between one and three times and drank between five or six drinks on their past-month heaviest drinking occasion. The amount the average male and female students reported their parents would approve them consuming increased from about one drink to less than three drinks over time (quantities were greater for males than females, but rates of change did not significantly differ by sex). Each one-unit increase in mean PPP was associated with a 29% greater number of past-month binge drinking occasions. The average annual increase in females’ peak drinking was 12%; the rate of increase for males did not significantly differ. Patterns of PPP change were non-linear and differed among families. Each one-unit increase in mean PPP was associated with a 24% greater number of drinks consumed on the past-month heaviest drinking occasion. Cluster membership predicted the rate of increase in the number of drinks on students’ heaviest drinking occasion through the fourth year of college.

Take away: Perceived parental permissibility of alcohol use (PPP) increased across college; between-person differences in mean PPP were positively associated with binge drinking frequency and peak drinking. Through the fourth year of college, patterns of PPP change differentially predicted both drinking outcomes.

Citation: Calhoun BH, Maggs JL, & Loken E. (2017) Change in college students’ perceived parental permissibility of alcohol use and its relation to college drinking [published online ahead of print August 31 2017], Addictive Behaviors doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.08.025