408 JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL AND DRUGS / MAY 2011 Alcohol-Specific Parenting and Adolescents’ Alcohol- Related Problems: The Interacting Role of Alcohol Availability at Home and Parental Rules* REGINA VAN DEN EIJNDEN, PH.D., † DIKE VAN DE MHEEN, PROFESSOR, PH.D., † RAYMOND VET, M.SC., † AND AD VERMULST, PH.D. † Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 Utrecht, The Netherlands 408 ABSTRACT. Objective: The first aim of this study was to gain more insight into the bi-directionality between alcohol-specific parental fac- tors (i.e., parents’ alcohol use, alcohol availability at home, parental rule setting, and frequency and quality of communication about alcohol) and adolescents’ alcohol intake and alcohol-related problems. The second aim was to examine the relative impact of alcohol-specific parental factors on adolescents’ alcohol intake and related problems by studying them in a comprehensive model. Method: A two-wave longitudinal study, with a 2-year interval, was conducted among a sample of 537 adolescents (56% girls) ages 12–15 years in The Netherlands. Under supervision of well-instructed teachers, students filled out questionnaires in a classroom setting. Results: The findings show that perceived alcohol availability at home was the only parenting factor predicting an increase in alcohol intake and alcohol-related problems among adolescents 2 years later. Cross-sectional findings, furthermore, suggest that the effect of alcohol availability on adolescents’ alcohol-related problems disap- pears when adolescents perceive strict alcohol rules. In addition, results indicate that parents respond to their youngsters’ experienced alcohol- related problems by engaging in more rigorous alcohol-specific parent- ing (e.g., by increasing alcohol-specific rules and decreasing alcohol availability at home). Conclusions: The findings emphasize that parent interventions aiming at the prevention of adolescents’ alcohol use should include the advice to restrict the perceived presence of alcohol bever- ages at home. Moreover, to prevent alcohol problems, parents should be advised to enforce strict rules about drinking, particularly when a total absence of alcohol at home is not feasible. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72, 408–417, 2011) Received: June 23, 2010. Revised: November 24, 2010. *This research was funded by The Netherlands Institute for Health Pro- motion and Disease Prevention. † Correspondence may be sent to Regina van den Eijnden at the above address or via email at: r.j.j.m.vandeneijnden@uu.nl. Regina van den Eijnden is also with IVO, Addiction Research Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Dike van de Mheen and Raymond Vet are with IVO, Addiction Research Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Ad Vermulst is with the Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. T HE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN parents’ alcohol use and adolescents’ alcohol intake is well documented (e.g., Andrews et al., 1997; Chassin et al., 1997; Duncan et al., 1996; Engels et al., 1999). Generally, it is thought that this association results from a combination of shared genetics (Koopmans and Boomsma, 1996; Poelen et al., 2008) and parental influences such as modeling by parents (Ary et al., 1993; Zhang et al., 1999). In addition, parental alcohol use is associated with more permissive parenting practices, which in turn may contribute to the development of adolescents’ drinking patterns (van der Vorst et al., 2005; Wood et al., 2004). A well-documented parenting practice related to adoles- cent drinking is the enforcement of rules regarding alcohol use, whereby strict rules may help to prevent drinking among youngsters (Ennett et al., 2001; Spijkerman et al., 2008; van der Vorst et al., 2006; van Zundert et al., 2006). Also, parental alcohol use is related to the availability of alco- holic drinks at home (Komro et al., 2007; Maddahian et al., 1986) and may thereby stimulate adolescent drinking. Other alcohol-specific parenting practices, such as the quality and frequency of communication about alcohol use, may influ- ence children’s drinking as well. Cross-sectional research showed a negative association between qualitative good com- munication about alcohol use (e.g., communication whereby the child feels comfortable and well understood) and ado- lescent drinking, suggesting that such communication may help to prevent adolescents from drinking (Spijkerman et al, 2008). On the contrary, frequency of communication about alcohol use is positively related to adolescents’ alcohol use (van der Vorst et al., 2005; van Zundert et al., 2006), imply- ing that adolescents drink more in cases of frequent parent– child conversations about alcohol use. Despite the aforementioned studies, our knowledge on parenting tools preventing adolescent drinking is still lim- ited. Most previous studies used cross-sectional designs and do not provide insight into possible causal mechanisms. In addition, few previous studies were designed to disentangle the relative impact of these parenting factors by testing them in a multifactor model. Such a comprehensive model is required because the various parenting factors are mutually interrelated. As stated before, parental drinking is linked to parental rule enforcement and alcohol availability at home. Moreover, the latter two are notably correlated as well (Spij- kerman et al., 2008; van Zundert et al., 2006). As a result,