Pathways to Alcohol Use Among Dutch Students in Regular Education and Education for Adolescents With Behavioral Problems: The Role of Parental Alcohol Use, General Parenting Practices, and Alcohol-Specific Parenting Practices Rinka M. P. Van Zundert, Haske Van Der Vorst, Ad A. Vermulst, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels Radboud University Nijmegen The present study explored the role of parents’ alcohol use, general parenting practices (support and behavioral control), and alcohol-specific parenting practices (alcohol-specific rule enforcement and alcohol availability at home) on adolescent alcohol use. Structural equation analyses were performed on cross-sectional data from adolescents who received special education because of behavioral problems (n = 411) and from adolescents who received regular education (n = 428). The main findings show that alcohol-specific parenting practices appear to be highly important in regulating adolescent alcohol use. Parental alcohol use was related to alcohol-specific rule enforcement and alcohol availability at home. Behavioral control was also related to alcohol-specific rule enforcement. Furthermore, the relationships between parental alcohol use, parenting practices, and adolescent alcohol use did not appear to differ substantially for students in special and regular education. Keywords: alcohol, adolescents, parents, alcohol-specific socialization In the Netherlands, 6.1% of Dutch adolescents age 12–17 years can be considered heavy drinkers (CBS, 2003). On the average, prevalence rates of alcohol use during the last 12 months among Dutch 15–16-year-olds (85%) are similar to prevalence rates in all other included countries in a Euro- pean survey (83%) and higher than prevalence rates in the United States (60%; Hibell et al., 2004). Considering the personal and societal costs alcohol problems among adoles- cents cause worldwide, numerous studies have aimed to clarify which factors contribute to adolescent alcohol in- volvement (Weinberg, Rahdert, Colliver, & Glantz, 1998). Recently, intensified attention has been paid to the role parenting practices and parental alcohol use play in the development of problems with alcohol use and abuse among adolescents. The aim of the present study was to examine how general parenting, alcohol-specific parenting, and pa- rental drinking are associated with adolescent alcohol use. Parenting Practices With regard to general parenting practices, support ap- pears to prevent early onset and frequent and heavy alcohol use among adolescents. For example, Barnes, Farrell, and Banerjee (1994) reported that adequate parental support and positive parent– child communication were related to lower levels of heavy drinking. Moreover, many authors have advocated the positive relationship between parental behav- ioral control on the one hand, that is, setting limits on children’s activities and whereabouts, and adolescent alco- hol use on the other (e.g., Barnes et al., 1994; White, Johnson, & Buyske, 2000). Peterson, Hawkins, Abbott, and Catalano (1995), for example, found that those parents who had monitored their children when they were age 12–13 years had teenage children who were less likely to be users of alcohol at age 14 –15 years. Furthermore, recent research has focused more explicitly on how parents deal with their offspring’s alcohol involve- ment. In parenting, stricter rules appear to restrain or pre- vent adolescent alcohol use (Van Der Vorst, Engels, Meeus, Dekovic, & Van Leeuwe, 2005). Rule enforcement of par- ents regarding their children’s alcohol consumption can be considered a more proximal application of behavioral con- trol in that it is solely aimed at setting rules about their child’s alcohol use specifically. Yu (2003), for example, found that parental control of underage alcohol use in the household appeared to reduce adolescents’ involvement in underage alcohol use. Despite the potentially strong impact of parental alcohol rules on adolescent drinking, until now this concept has hardly been examined. Further, there is Rinka M. P. Van Zundert, Haske Van Der Vorst, Ad A. Ver- mulst, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. A previous version of this article was presented in June 2004 at the 30th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alco- hol, Helsinki, Finland. This research was supported by two grants to Rutger C. M. E. Engels: a fellowship grant from the Dutch Organization of Scientific Research and a research grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Rinka M. P. Van Zundert, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, the Netherlands. E-mail: r.vanzundert@pwo.ru.nl Journal of Family Psychology Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 20, No. 3, 456 – 467 0893-3200/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0893-3200.20.3.456 456