The Influence of Personality Traits and Parental Behavior in Risky Drinking among Dutch Adolescents

Abstract

At least 74% of Dutch adolescents between 12-18 years of age have reported risky drinking, which could lead to some negative outcomes like poor academic achievement, car accidents, and alcohol poisoning. Researchers and interventionists seek a more complete understanding of the etiology of risky drinking during adolescence. Developmental perspectives are particularly helpful in this regard. Yet, studies are lacking in examining the interactions between an adolescent’s personality traits and parental behavior on risky drinking. Hence, to fill this gap, in this longitudinal study, we examined whether parental control interacted with the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the two facets of the behavioral approach system (BAS Fun-seeking and BAS-Drive) in the prediction of adolescents’ risky drinking. Participants in the current study took part in the second and third wave of a three-year longitudinal research project called the Adolescent Risk-Taking (ART) project. The participants were 601 adolescents (12-17 years old) who completed questionnaires about their personality traits, parental control, and risky drinking. Contrary to our hypotheses, results indicated that the association between BAS Fun-seeking and risky drinking became weaker when parental control was high. These results raise new questions regarding the role of parental control by suggesting that high parental control increases risky drinking for adolescents with BAS Fun-seeking.