What Does Parental Involvement Mean in Preventing Adolescents' Use of Alcohol? An Integrative Review

Using Non-Violent Discipline Tools: Evidence Suggesting the Importance of Attunement

Training in non-violent discipline is important to prevent violence against children and ensure that their caregivers remain a safe base for them. This paper aims to deepen understanding of non-violent discipline by exploring attunement as a mechanism in the effectiveness of non-violent discipline tools. Attunement describes the sensitive responsiveness of caregivers towards their children and has been found to be central to the formation of secure attachment bonds and development of self-regulation. It includes understanding or being "in tune with" the child's needs and signals, matching these with appropriate responses. The objective of this paper is to explore attunement in relation to non-violent discipline. Peer-reviewed systematic reviews previously included in a systematic overview of evidence on non-violent discipline options were screened for information relevant to attunement. All reviews were published in English between 1999 and 2018 and offered evidence on at least one non-violent discipline tool. Although no reviews explicitly addressed attunement, evidence was found suggesting its importance in the use and effectiveness of discipline methods. Research directly investigating attunement in discipline is needed.

Nonviolent Discipline Options for Caregivers and Teachers: A Systematic Overview of the Evidence

Violence against children is a widespread problem with devastating consequences, and corporal punishment is a risk factor for more serious forms of physical abuse. One reason for the persistence of corporal punishment may be the lack of awareness of positive disciplinary alternatives. Nonviolent options offered to caregivers and teachers must be effective in addressing challenging behavior, or they may be rejected in favor of a return to physical punishment. There is an urgent need to determine which discipline options are evidence-supported and what that evidence says so that robust alternatives to corporal punishment can be made available. The primary objective of this research was to find, and explore the state of the science on, individual nonviolent interventions for challenging behavior, in so doing forming a "tool kit" for use by caregivers and teachers. A systematic overview of systematic reviews was conducted. Included systematic reviews were peer-reviewed and published in English between 1999 and 2018. Screening, quality assessment using AMSTAR, and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers. A total of 223 reviews were included, covering data from 3,921 primary studies. A wide range of evidence-supported interventions exist, many of which have been found effective with severely challenging behavior. Important positive outcomes shown suggest that the use of these tools should be promoted not only for the prevention of violence but also for optimum child development. More research is needed on the use of these methods in home situations and on de-escalation skills.

Parents' perspective on their responsibilities with regard to adolescents' use of alcohol

BACKGROUND

Parents have responsibilities when their adolescent offspring use alcohol, but little is known about their views on the topic. This knowledge would help healthcare organisations to develop practices to help parents meet their responsibilities.

AIM

The aim of this study was to describe parents' perceptions and experiences of their responsibilities and what support they needed to tackle underage drinking.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This Finnish study was carried out in 2017. It used a qualitative descriptive method that involved carrying out semi-structured interviews with 20 parents of adolescents aged 14-15 years. The data were analysed using inductive content analysis.

RESULTS

Parents described that it was their responsibility to prevent problems that could have a negative impact on their adolescents' well-being. When it came to their responsibilities with regard to adolescents using alcohol, parents saw these as guiding and protecting their child, being aware of how parents used alcohol themselves, the way they communicated with adolescents and the rules they set about experimenting with alcohol. Parents said that receiving collaborative support from peers, community and professionals working in health and social care services would be useful. This could help them to prevent adolescents using alcohol, tackle problems that occurred when adolescents drank and enable parents to play a responsible role in their local community.

CONCLUSION

Parents recognised that they had responsibilities to prevent alcohol having a negative impact on adolescents' well-being. They wanted to ensure that adolescents made sensible and responsible decisions when it came to using alcohol. Parents described that the most important form of support was peer support from other parents. The findings of this study can be used to inform the development of preventive healthcare services and support parents to meet their responsibilities with regard to tackling underage drinking.

A systematic review of parent based programs to prevent or reduce alcohol consumption in adolescents

BACKGROUND

Adolescent alcohol consumption is an issue of ongoing concern and programs targeting parents have been identified as an important component in minimizing and preventing alcohol related harm in adolescents. This paper aims to evaluate existing parent based alcohol education programs with a focus on understanding parent specific outcomes including parental attitudes, parent-child communication, alcohol specific rule setting and parental monitoring; study quality, the extent of stakeholder engagement in program design and the level of theory application.

METHOD

A systematic review of electronic databases EBSCO, Emerald, ProQuest, PubMed, Ovid, ScienceDirect, Taylor and Francis and Web of Science was conducted from database inception to August 2019. A total of 4288 unique records were retrieved from the eight databases. Studies were included if they evaluated school based alcohol education programs that included a parent component and detailed outcome measures associated with parent data. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) quality assessment tool.

RESULTS

In total 17 studies qualified for assessment, detailing 13 individual parent programs. Of these, ten programs demonstrated positive effects in at least one parent reported outcome measure. Stakeholder engagement during the design of programs was lacking with the majority of programs. One third of the programs did not report theory use and when theory was used reporting was weak with three programs applying theory, five testing theory and none building theory. According to the EPHPP tool, overall ten programs were rated as weak, three as moderate and none as strong.

CONCLUSION

Future studies are recommended to further enhance the effectiveness of parental programs by improving study quality, increasing stakeholder engagement and increasing the level of theory application and reporting.

Underage drinking as a natural part of growing up: a UK study of parental beliefs

Purpose

Parental beliefs about underage drinking are known to influence the drinking behaviours of their children. The purpose of this paper is to explore parental beliefs about their own child drinking alcohol and young people in general, in order to ascertain whether there is a need to target such beliefs in the design of public health interventions.

Design/methodology/approach

Parents of 11–18 year olds attending one of nine schools in the Midlands of England, UK were invited to take part. Participants completed a newly designed 40-item questionnaire measuring parental beliefs about the impact and causes of underage drinking; talking to their child about alcohol; and how much and how often they thought their child consumed alcohol.

Findings

In total, 185 parents took part in the study, reporting on their eldest child aged 18 or under. The majority of parents agreed that underage drinking is detrimental to child health and wellbeing. However, over 60 per cent believed that alcohol consumption is a “natural part of growing up”, and stronger agreement with this belief was associated with higher parental reports of alcohol consumption in their children.

Social implications

The majority of parents recognised the risks and negative effects of alcohol; however, many also believe it is a natural part of growing up. Parents may hold conflicting beliefs about underage drinking, which could impact on the drinking beliefs and behaviours of their children.

Originality/value

Public health interventions may need to counter the common parental belief that underage drinking is a normal part of growing up and therefore to be expected. Clear messages about the impact parent beliefs and behaviour have on young people drinking, to ensure parents recognise that messages are aimed at themselves, and not just “other parents” are imperative.

Social Capital as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination and Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among Immigrant and Non-immigrant Adolescents in Israel

Literature highlights the relationship between perceived discrimination and frequency and severity of alcohol and cannabis use. One mechanism for explaining this is the nature of perceived discrimination as a potentially traumatic interpersonal stressor, which can lead to the depletion of social and personal resources. Within a Recovery Capital (RC) framework, the current study explores whether the existence of social capital in the form of parental monitoring, friend and teacher support can buffer the relationship between perceived discrimination and alcohol and cannabis use among immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents, by replenishing the depleted resources. The study included a representative sample of 8,598 students in Israel, aged 11-18, from the Health Behaviors of School Aged Children (HBSC) 2013-2014 data: 1503 immigrant adolescents from the Former Soviet Union [FSU] (N = 955) and Ethiopia (N = 548) and 7086 non-immigrants. Results confirmed that perceived discrimination was positively related to substance use; all three forms of social capital were negatively related to alcohol and cannabis use and moderated the relationship between perceived discrimination and substance use, with the exception of friend support in the case of alcohol use. When all three social capital measures were included together, the adult social capital measures were significant predictors of substance use. Results suggest that levels of social capital, especially as provided by parents and teachers, can help young people, both immigrant and majority group adolescents, to cope with perceived discrimination.