Personality characteristics and family functioning on alcohol use in Italian adolescents.

Several psychosocial factors are associated with increase in risk of alcohol use in adolescence: personality factors and environment characteristics seem to play a key role (Nation & Heflinger, 2006). Psychological studies on possible predictors of drinking have emphasized the relationship between self-esteem, coping strategies and alcohol use, but findings are not completely coherent (Hamdan-Mansour et al., 2007; Laukkanen et al., 2001). Furthermore, studies of the family environment have shown that family functioning characteristics are related to alcohol use (Clark et al., 2011). The purpose of the present research was to examine the impact of personal and familiar variables on adolescents with different drinking patterns: non-drinkers (N=153), social drinkers (N=152) and binge drinkers (N=129). Four hundred and thirty-four Italian adolescents (M=278; F=156), aged 13 to 16 years, completed measures of family functioning, coping strategies, self-esteem and alcohol use. Results showed several differences on family functioning and personality factors between three categories.