College aantekeningen Adolescent Development Exam 3

LECTURE 9: ALCOHOL USE AND DELINQUENCY
PART 1: ALCOHOL USE AND DELINQUENCY AMONG
YOUTH
Do the Dutch drink?
-  Not specific for the Dutch only, other youth also
- Underage drinking (Van Dorsselaer et al., 2016; 2019)
o 13-year old → monthly drinking = 11% / 8.8%
o 15-year old drinkers* → binge drinking = 69.9% / 70.8%
 *monthly drinkers
- What are the risks of alcohol for youth?
o Physical and mental
 EX risky sexual behavior, more prone to addiction
o Relation between drinking alcohol and violence

Are they delinquent?
- Self-reported criminal behavior (at least one delinquent act in last 12
months)
o →12-17 years
 2010: 38%
 2015: 35%
 2020: 36.6%
o Relatively stable
- 15% less reporting in 2020 compared to 2010
- Most prevalent delinquent acts:
o Violent acts (21%)
o Threatening (19%)
o Vandalism (13%)
- Fewer registered minor suspects (CBS, 2021)


PART 2: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ALCOHOL USE AND DELINQUENCY
Shared similarities
1. Interrelated
o = relation between alcohol use and delinquency
 Correlations and co-occurrence
o 10 years: r = .16 - .18 (Mason et al., 2009)
o 12-15 years: r = .43 (Van Nieuwenhuizen et al., 2009)
o 12-16 years: in 25 European countries (Gatti et al., 2013)
o  The more (serious) offences (like violence, property) 
more prone to alcohol use
o Longitudinal predictions
 (e.g. Ellickson et al., 2003; Mason et al., 2009; Resnick et
al., 2004 )
 Most studies find no predictive effect of alcohol use on
delinquency, whereas delinquency mostly is a significant

, predictor of alcohol use (Chao, Li, McGue, 2017; Turner,
Danebek, Skarner, 2018;)
2. Peak in adolescence
o More alcohol use and more delinquency in adolescence
3. Predictor of other risk behaviors (e.g., drug use, risky sex)
4. Shared underlying mechanisms (e.g., self-control, social context,
family)
o What causes what is difficult to say because of other factors
o These factors predict both behavior
 Important
5. Decline in recent years (and now stabilization)
o Life-time alcohol use and past month alcohol use (underage)
both declined over time
o Some sort of stabilization the last years, but still declines a bit

Differences
1. Development
o More alcohol use, less involvement in delinquent behavior
through the years
2. Across gender
o Long time, boys more drinking than girls
 BUT nowadays between boys and girls the same
 Boys a little bit more involved in binge drinking
o Boys are more involved in delinquency than girls, no matter
what age
3. Representation ethnic minorities
o Delinquency
 Higher representation of minority groups
o Alcohol use
 Lower representation of minority groups
4. Behavior-specific  General parenting
o Age restriction
 16 to 18 for alcohol use
 BUT for delinquency there is no age restriction
 BECAUSE it is not accepter
o Alcohol-specific rules/communication
 Which rules do parents set to postpone the onset of
drinking or lower the level of drinking
 EX you can drink 1 beer on saturday
 For delinquency this is not the case
 It is always forbidden
o Control vs. support

, 
 Authoritative  most favorable
o Kids least likely to engage in alcohol use and
delinquency
 Neglectful  bad, no support from parents




-
o If we have specific rules on alcohol use  how does it
influence the use of other substances
o Mediated by monthly drinking

Parents and adolescent drinking
- Parents let their kids try their alcoholic drink
o BUT they do not invite their kids to steal something for
example


PART 3: PREVENTION OF ALCOHOL USE IN
STUDENTS (PAS)
Parent intervention
- Aim: strict parenting (rules and attitudes about alcohol)
o (Orebro prevention program, Koutakis et al., 2008)
1. Presentation at parents meeting (3x)
o First parents meeting new schoolyear
o Brief: 15 minutes
2. Consensus building parents
3. Information leaflet

Student intervention

, - Aim: increase self-control and healthy attitudes about alcohol
o (Healthy School and Drugs Program, Cuijpers et al., 2002)
1. Four digital interactive lessons (e-learning) in class
o Interactive assignments
o Individual and group
o Attractive lay-out
2. Hard-copy booster in year two

Study design




-
o 3 experimental conditions (interventions)

Early adolescence
- 12 to 16 years
o Entry secondary school (12 years old)
o Legal drinking age (16 years old)

Who participated?
- 19 secondary schools
- > 3000 adolescents and parents
- 12 to 16 years
- Self-report questionnaires
-  Significant difference only between combined intervention and
control
o ALSO when they were allowed to drink (16 years old)

CONCLUSION: Adolescents AND parents should be targeted
 How?
- Mediators
o Self-control (adolescents)
 13 items (Tangney, Baumeister, and Boone, 2004)
 E.g. “I do certain things that are bad for me, if they are
fun” (alpha = .74)
o Rules about alcohol (adolescents and parents)
 10 items (Van der Vorst et al., 2005)
 E.g. “I am allowed to drink alcohol on a party with my
friends” (alpha = .90)
o Attitude about alcohol (adolescents and parents)
o “A person of my age should be allowed to….”
- Student intervention
o Aim: increase self-control and healthy attitudes about alcohol