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Antecedent Predictors of Children's Initiation of Sipping/Tasting Alcohol
Author(s) -
Donovan John E.,
Molina Brooke S. G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.12517
Subject(s) - antecedent (behavioral psychology) , wine tasting , psychosocial , context (archaeology) , medicine , clinical psychology , psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , paleontology , physics , wine , optics , biology
Background Sipping or tasting alcohol is one of the earliest alcohol‐use behaviors in which young children engage, yet there is relatively little research on this behavior. Previous cross‐sectional analyses determined that child sipping or tasting is associated with the child's attitude toward sipping and with a family environment supportive of alcohol use, but not with variables reflecting psychosocial proneness for problem behavior as formulated in Problem Behavior Theory (Jessor and Jessor, Problem Behavior and Psychosocial Development: A Longitudinal Study of Youth , 1977, Academic Press, New York). This study extended these analyses longitudinally to identify antecedent predictors of the childhood initiation of sipping or tasting alcohol in a multiwave study. Methods A sample of 452 children (238 girls) aged 8 or 10 and their families was drawn from Allegheny County, PA , using targeted‐age directory sampling and random digit dialing procedures. Children were interviewed using computer‐assisted interviews. Antecedent variables collected at baseline (Wave 1) were examined as predictors of the initiation of sipping/tasting alcohol in childhood (before age 12) among Wave 1 abstainers ( n = 286). Results Ninety‐four children initiated sipping/tasting alcohol in a nonreligious context between baseline and turning age 12. Initiation of sipping/tasting did not generally relate to baseline variables reflecting psychosocial proneness for problem behavior. Instead, as found in the previous cross‐sectional analyses, the variables most predictive of initiating sipping/tasting were perceived parents' approval for child sipping, parents' reported approval for child sipping, parents' current drinking status, and children's attitudes toward sipping/tasting alcohol. Conclusions These longitudinal analyses replicate the earlier cross‐sectional results. Young children's sipping/tasting of alcohol reflects parental modeling of drinking and parental approval of child sipping and does not represent a precocious manifestation of a psychosocial proneness to engage in problem behavior.