College students face increased alcohol exposure during their transition to independence, making parental communication about alcohol a critical influence on drinking behaviors. Parents communicate about alcohol for various motives including prevention, reactive response to risky drinking, teaching moderation, relational needs, and family history concerns. Research shows that students’ perceptions of parental behaviors predict drinking outcomes better than parents’ self-reports, yet previous studies have focused primarily on communication content rather than perceived motives behind parental discussions. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine college students’ perceptions of their parents’ motives for alcohol communication and investigated whether perceptions of these motives predict changes in alcohol consumption and related consequences during the transition to college.
The study included 306 first-year college students who reported alcohol communication with parents from a larger randomized controlled trial of incoming students. Data were collected through web-based surveys at baseline and follow-up. Students completed the Student-Reported Parent Motives for Alcohol Communication Scale (SR-PMACS) to assess perceived parental motives, alcohol use measures (Daily Drinking Questionnaire), negative alcohol consequences (Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire), parent communication content measures (harm reduction and zero tolerance), and covariates including peer norms and parental modeling. Data analysis employed negative binomial regression models using an adapted “One-with-Many” design to examine mother and father effects simultaneously, with systematic model comparisons using likelihood ratio tests to determine whether maternal and paternal predictor effects could be constrained as equal or should remain separate, while controlling for baseline drinking measures, demographics, peer norms, parental modeling, communication content, and intervention conditions.
According to the findings, students perceived teaching motives as the most common parental communication motive, followed by prevention and relational motives, with significant correlations between mother and father motives ranging from .68 to .91. Model comparisons using likelihood ratio tests indicated that maternal and paternal predictor effects could be constrained as equal for most pathways except family history motives, which showed significantly different effects between parents. After controlling for covariates, only three motives showed significant effects: perceived reactive motives were associated with increases in typical weekly drinking (9%) and heavy episodic drinking (21%), while perceived maternal family history motives were associated with decreased heavy episodic drinking (27%). Additionally, peer descriptive norms were positively associated with all drinking outcomes, parental modeling was positively associated with typical weekly drinking, peak drinking, and heavy episodic drinking, and having a parent not participate in the intervention was negatively associated with drinking outcomes.
Takeaway: Students’ perceptions of reactive parental motives significantly predict college drinking behaviors.