A socio-ecological perspective on alcohol use in adolescence

Alcohol use among adolescents has become a public health problem(Morawska & Oei,2005). Although the frequency and the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed vary greatly from different countries and cultures, in two thirds of the ESPAD countries the vast majority of the students (15-16 years) have drank alcohol at least once in their lifetime. Moreover, in half of the participating countries, 47% of the students had consumed at least one glass of alcohol at the age of 13 or younger, and 14% had been drunk at that age. These changing patterns of consumption are associated with a variety of negative outcomes (Coleman & Cater, 2003). In a socio-ecological perspective, many studies (Nation & Helfinger, 2006) have identified several psychosocial risk factor associated with alcohol use (psychosocial functioning, family environment, peer relationship, and stressful life events). Clark et al. (2011) suggest that several dimensions of parenting affect alcohol use of children in both direct and indirect ways. Furthermore, abuse of alcohol is a response to fluctuations in the family system (Saatcioglu et al., 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of personal and familiar variables on alcohol use. We collected 730 Italian adolescents (M=476; F=249; MS=5), aged between 13 and 16 years. The participants completed measures of family functioning, self-esteem and alcohol use. Results confirmed the effects of family functioning on personal characteristics and alcohol use. In particular results showed that disengaged and chaotic family functioning were the strongest predictors of alcohol use in early adolescence.