Frequency of Parent-Adolescent Alcohol-Specific Communication and Adolescent Perceptions of Alcohol

To better understand the optimal frequency of parent-adolescent alcohol-specific communication, we conducted a secondary analysis of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse Culture of High School Survey, a 2010 nationally representative online survey of 1000 high school students. Logistic regression models assessed the relationship between alcohol-specific communication and adolescent perceptions (binge drinking is very dangerous, drinking is cool, and getting drunk is very dangerous), adjusting for grade, sex, race, personal and peer alcohol use, and parental monitoring. Among adolescents reporting personal and peer alcohol use, a dose-response relationship existed between frequency of alcohol-specific communication and thinking binge drinking is very dangerous (often [adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 7.98; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.98-21.36], sometimes (AOR = 6.08; 95% CI = 2.36-15.69), rarely (AOR = 5.27; 95% CI = 1.95-14.26) vs never), and was also associated with decreased perceptions that drinking is cool (often [AOR = 0.22; 95% CI = 0.08-0.66), rarely vs never [AOR = 0.17; 95% CI = 0.06-0.51]); the inverse was true for never-drinkers without peer use.