Research & Resources

Research suggests that, even in college, parents influence the alcohol consumption of their children. This research was conducted to test whether face-to-face interactions with parents buffer students against social influences on drinking. In the current study, 1168 undergraduate students selected five people they contact regularly and then completed a 30-day daily diary reporting on interactions with those people and drinking behavior. College students who meet a parent regularly consumed less alcohol over 30 days and had a lower percentage of drinking days. Additionally, meeting with a parent reduced social influences on alcohol consumption.

This paper, “Meet the parents: Parental interactions, social influences, and college drinking,” was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). It was published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.