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.