Alcohol expectancies in young children and how this relates to parental alcohol use

According to the cognitive model of intergenerational transference, modeling of alcohol use is an indirect process in which parental drinking shapes alcohol expectancies of children, which in turn are associated with later alcohol use in adolescents. The present study examined whether parental alcohol use was related to alcohol expectancies and experimentation with alcohol use in young children. A community sample of 240 children aged 8.02 (SD = 1.13) participated. Alcohol expectancies were assessed by means of the Berkeley Puppet Interview. Children reported consistently and reliably on the positive and negative consequences of alcohol use among adults. Their positive and negative expectancies were equally strong. Compared to younger children, older children had more negative and less positive expectancies. For girls, more paternal alcohol use was associated with less negative alcohol expectancies. For older children, more alcohol use of the mother was related to less positive expectancies, while more alcohol use of the father was related to more positive expectancies. The present study showed that young children already have clear ideas about the positive and negative consequences alcohol can have among adults, which can be captured with the Berkeley Puppet Interview. These expectancies are partly associated with alcohol use of their parents.