The roles of parenting and child welfare services in alcohol use by adolescents

The research asked whether two aspects of parenting (child maltreatment and parental drinking) as well as child welfare services have an effect on adolescents' alcohol use. Secondary data analysis with the discrete-time method of causal analysis was employed. The sample of 1591 adolescents was from families involved with child protective services. The data was extracted from a longitudinal data set collected nationally between 1999 and 2004. The results showed that experience of neglect predicted adolescents' subsequent alcohol use, but parental drinking and child welfare services made no significant impact. Implications for child welfare services are discussed.