Lecture 11 Alcohol use and delinquency 

Intro  

Under the influence of alcohol, youth are at higher risk to be involved in aggressive behavior and violent behaviors.  

Part 1 – alcohol use and delinquency 

Do the Dutch drink? 

• Underage drinking 

• 13 years old > monthly drinking = 8.8% 

• 15 year old drinkers > binge drinking = 70.8% 

Are they delinquent? 

• Self-reported criminal behavior (at least one delinquent act in the last 12 months): 

• 12-17 year 

• 2010: 38% 

• 2015: 35% 

• 10/11 year old 

• 2010/2015: 20% 

• Most prevalent delinquent acts:  

• Violence acts 

• Threatening 

• Vandalism 

• Registered minor suspects: 

• 50% fewer registered minor suspects in 10 year 

Part 2 – Similarities and differences between alcohol use and delinquency 

Shared similarities 

• Interrelated 

• Correlated and co-occurrence 

• Table: number of offenses and prevalence rate of different drinking behaviors. Those adolescents who were not involved in any offense, half of them had drunk alcohol at least once in their life. Number of kids that had been involved in lifetime drinking, increases in amount of offenses 

• Longitudinal predictions: most studies find no predictive effect of alcohol use on delinquency, whereas delinquency mostly is a significant predictor of alcohol use 

• Peak in adolescence 

• Predictor of other risk behaviors (e.g., drug use, risky sex) 

• Shared underlying mechanisms (e.g., self-control, peers) 

• Importance of parental control and warmth 

• Decline in recent years 

• decline started from 2006/2007 onwards 

• Registered minor suspects: also a decline starting from 2006/2007 

• What is going on there? 

Differences 

• Development 

• Alcohol use: increases up to at least 25 years 

• Delinquency: decline 18 year onwards 

• Across gender 

• Alcohol use: hardly any differences between boys and girls 

• Delinquency: boys are more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior than girls 

• Representation ethnic minorities 

• Alcohol use: less likely to drink 

• Delinquency: more likely to be involved 

• Behavior-specific vs general parenting 

• Age restriction 

• Alcohol-specific rules/communication 

• Delinquency: general parenting 

• No age restriction 

• Level of control and support are important in both parenting behaviors 

• Four different parenting styles 

• Neglectful: these kids are most likely to drink and engage in risky behaviors 

• Balance between control and support – alcohol use 

• Most of the parents in authoritative/average authoritative group 

• From a lot rules to less rules 

• High quality of communication 

• Authoritative parents are more likely to communicate often 

• Authoritarian 

• Strict at age 12, decline steeply 

• Quality of communication is low 

• Decliners 

• Strict at age 12, but they decline very steeply over time 

• Quality of communication is average 

• Permissive 

• Permissive at age 12, more permissive over time 

• Quality of communication below average 

• Parents are the once's who provide the first drink. But they don't teach their children how to steal. 

• Children are more likely to drink with parents. When they become older, they drink more often with peers 

Part 3 – Prevention of alcohol use in students (PAS) (intervention) 

• The intervention targeted on both the adolescent as the parents 

Parent intervention 

• Aim: strict parenting (rules and attitudes about alcohol) 

• Presentation at parents meeting (3x) 

• first parents meeting new schoolyear 

• Brief: 15 minutes 

• Consensus building parents 

• parents talked about rules 

• Information leaflet 

Student intervention 

• Aim: increase self-control and healthy attitudes about alcohol 

• Four digital interactive lessons (e-learning) in class 

• interactive assignments 

• Individual and group 

• Attractive lay-out 

• Hard-copy booster in year two 

Study design  

• Sample: early adolescence (12-16 years) 

• Entry secondary school 

• Legal drinking age 

• Self-report at 5 timepoints 

Significant difference between combine intervention and control group (weekly drinking) 

Heavy weekly drinking at age 16: only a significant effect of the combined intervention 

Conclusion: adolescents and parents should be targeted 

How? And among whom does it work? 

• Student intervention: 

• Mediators: self-control and attitude about alcohol 

• Parent intervention: 

• self-control, rules about alcohol and attitude about alcohol 

Do these behaviors influence the alcohol use? Yes! 

• Increase in self-control, rules and attitude 

Combined intervention lowered level of drinking at age 16. This effect was achieved through weekly drinking at age 15. The onset of heavy weekly drinking was influenced by rules and self-control 

Part 4 – What about delinquency? 

Delinquency  

• 40-50% of delinquent offenders has a substance addiction 

• Substance addiction is a contra-indication of delinquency treatment 

Externalizing behavior 

• Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire 

• subscale: conduct behavior > fights, lies, steels, disobey, tantrum 

• As a moderator 

• have specific groups more benefits? 

• As an outcome 

• what is the effect of the PAS intervention on externalizing behaviors? 

Moderator 

• RQ: is the alcohol intervention differentially effective for adolescents with low/high externalizing at age 12? 

• Combined intervention more effective in adolescents with externalizing behavior 

Outcome 

• Research question: is the alcohol intervention effective in curbin adolescents’ externalizing behaviors? 

• Externalizing behavior age 12, 13, 14, 15 

• Combined intervention: externalizing behavior decreases over time 

• Parent intervention and student intervention develop in a similar way 

Conclusion 

• Combined PAS intervention effectively 

• postpones the onset of (heavy) weekly drinking up to age 16 

• Curbs the development of externalizing behaviors up to age 15 

• Particularly in adolescents with externalizing behaviors at age 12 

Thus 

• Different from and in addition to current state of knowledge 

• Interrelated, longitudinal predictions 

• Experimental study: later drinking also influences the level of delinquency 

Discussion 

• How does this happen? 

• two hypothesis: 

• Underlying mechanisms (increase in self-control and alcohol-specific rules) result in lower rates of externalizing behavior 

• Delayed alcohol initiation leads to less externalizing behaviors 

• What happened in 2006/2007? 

• social media hypothesis? 

• Social media as another platform to meet the needs of adolescents (recognition by peers, entertainment) 

• Shift from offline to online delinquency 

• Changing social cultural attitude hypothesis? 

• Changing attitudes of youth and parents towards risk behavior 

• More protective factors (monitoring/solicitation) and less risk factors (exposure to risky peers)