Regional versus urban differences in teenage alcohol use: Does parental disapproval account for these differences?

Objective To investigate if parental disapproval of alcohol use accounts for differences in adolescent alcohol use across regional and urban communities. Design Secondary data analysis of grade-level stratified data from a random sample of schools. Setting High schools in Victoria, Australia. Participants A random sample of 10 273 adolescents from Grade 7 (mean age = 12.51 years), 9 (14.46 years) and 11 (16.42 years). Main outcome measures The key independent variables were parental disapproval of adolescent alcohol use and regionality (regional/ urban), and the dependent variable was past 30 days alcohol use. Results After adjusting for potential confounders, adolescents in regional areas were more likely to use alcohol in the past 30 days ( OR = 1.83, 1.44 and 1.37 for Grades 7, 9 and 11, respectively, P < 0.05), and their parents have a lower level of disapproval of their alcohol use ( b = −0.12, −0.15 and −0.19 for Grades 7, 9 and 11, respectively, P < 0.001). Bootstrapping analyses suggested that 8.37%, 23.30% and 39.22% of the effect of regionality on adolescent alcohol use was mediated by parental disapproval of alcohol use for Grades 7, 9 and 11 participants respectively ( P < 0.05). Conclusions Adolescents in urban areas had a lower risk of alcohol use compared with their regional counterparts, and differences in parental disapproval of alcohol use contributed to this difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]