Introduction: Previous research has shown associations between parental problem drinking and adverse mental health outcomes in children. However, while many studies assess parental alcohol problems based on clinical measures, longitudinal studies that investigate the impact of potentially less severe levels of parental alcohol problems are scarce. The aim of this study was to examine if the existence and severity of child-reported parental problem drinking in adolescence is associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety in young adult men and women.

Methods: Data was obtained from the Swedish national cohort study Futura01, including 3143 participants born in 2001 who were surveyed in 2017 (age 15–16) and 2022 (age 20–21). Parental problem drinking was measured at age 15–16 with the short version of The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured at age 20–21 with the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. Registry information on gender, parental education and parental country of birth were included as covariates.

Results: The results demonstrated an exposure-response pattern, with greater severity of parental problem drinking associated with an increased probability of reporting depression and anxiety symptoms 5 years later. The association between parental problem drinking and subsequent depression symptoms was however present only in females.

Discussion and Conclusions: Adolescents exposed to parental problem drinking have elevated risks of long-term adverse mental health. These risks increase with greater severity of parental problem drinking. It is thus crucial with efforts preventing parental problem drinking and efforts promoting health among children and adolescents who are exposed.

Introduction: Much research into the links between parental problematic alcohol use and adolescent substance use has focused on clinically diagnosed parental alcohol disorders. Few prior studies have utilised validated measures of adolescents’ perception of parental alcohol problems and considered the severity of these problems. This study examined the associations between the severity of perceived parental alcohol problems and adolescents’ drinking patterns in a Swedish national sample.

Methods: We used survey information from grade 9 and 11 students (15–18 years) from 2021 (n = 9,227). Perceived parental alcohol problems were measured by the short version of The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-6). The outcomes were: alcohol consumption during the past 12 months, frequent heavy episodic drinking (HED), and early alcohol debut (before age 14). Sociodemographic characteristics were adjusted for.

Results: Binary logistic regressions showed that the severity of perceived parental alcohol problems was associated with alcohol consumption during the past 12 months (low severity OR 1.53, p < 0.001; moderate severity OR 1.85, p < 0.001; high severity OR 2.52, p < 0.001), HED (low severity OR 1.16, n.s.; moderate severity OR 1.31, n.s.; high severity OR 1.64, p < 0.01), and early alcohol debut (low severity OR 1.57, p < 0.001; moderate severity OR 1.65, p < 0.001; high severity OR 2.20, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Adolescents with perceived parental alcohol problems are more likely to have risky drinking patterns themselves, and the likelihood becomes higher with increased severity. Effective interventions for children whose parents have drinking problems are important, and should also take the severity of the parents’ drinking problem into account.

Background Alcohol abuse is not only harmful to the consumer but may also negatively impact individuals in the drinker’s social environment. Alcohol’s harm to others is vital to consider when calculating the true societal cost of alcohol use. Children of parents who have alcohol use disorder tend to have an elevated risk of negative outcomes regarding, e.g., health, education, and social relationships. Research on the general youth population has established a link between parental drinking and offspring alcohol use. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding other outcomes, such as health. The current study aimed to investigate the associations between parental drinking and children’s psychological and somatic complaints, and perceived stress.

Methods Data were derived from a nationally representative sample, obtained from the 2010 Swedish Level-of-Living survey (LNU). Parents and adolescents (ages 10–18) living in the same households were interviewed independently. The final study sample included 909 adolescents from 629 households. The three outcomes, psychological and somatic complaints and perceived stress, were derived from adolescents’ self-reports. Parents’ selfreports of alcohol use, both frequency and quantity, were used to categorise adolescents as having abstaining, lowconsuming, moderate-drinking, or heavy-drinking parents. Control variables included adolescents’ gender, age, family structure, and household socioeconomic status. Linear and binary logistic regression analyses were performed.

Results Parental heavy drinking was more common among adolescents living in more socioeconomically advantaged households and among adolescents living with two custodial parents or in reconstituted families. Adolescents with heavy-drinking parents reported higher levels of psychological and somatic complaints and had an increased likelihood of reporting stress, compared with those having moderate-drinking parents. These associations remained statistically significant when adjusting for all control variables.

Conclusion The current study’s results show that parental alcohol consumption is associated with poorer offspring adolescent health. Public health policies that aim to reduce parental drinking or provide support to these adolescents may be beneficial. Further studies investigating the health-related outcomes among young people living with heavy-drinking parents in the general population are needed to gain more knowledge about these individuals and to implement adequate public health measures.

Introduction

For adolescents, parental problem drinking can be regarded as a chronic stressor, negatively affecting their health. There is limited knowledge and a relative lack of empirical evidence on this topic, especially in Sweden. The aim of the current study was to examine perceived parental alcohol problems and the links with psychosomatic complaints among adolescents in Sweden.

Methods

Data were obtained from the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs’ national survey of 2021, collected amongst 9,032 students in grades 9 (∼15–16 years) and 11 (∼17–18 years). Perceived parental alcohol problems were measured by the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-6) scale, using a cutoff at ≥ 3. Psychosomatic complaints were captured by a binary measure based on the frequency of headache, stomach ache, feeling depressed or down, difficulties to fall asleep, and sleeping poorly at night. Sociodemographic characteristics included gender, grade, parental education, and parental country of birth. Descriptive analyses with chi2 tests and binary logistic regression analyses were performed.

Results

Adolescents with perceived parental alcohol problems had higher odds of reporting psychosomatic complaints compared with adolescents without perceived parental drinking problems, even when adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Girls, grade 11 students, adolescent with at least one parent born in Sweden, and those without university-educated parents were more likely to report parental alcohol problems.

Conclusions

The findings highlight adolescents with perceived parental alcohol problems need support. The school, being an arena where adolescents spend much of their time, may play a vital role in this regard.

Background A non-negligible proportion of children grow up with problematic alcohol use in the family. Problematic familial drinking can be regarded as a stressor, and prior studies have consistently reported poorer mental health among adolescents who are exposed. However, it is also of relevance to identify modifiable protective factors which may buffer against stress-related ill-health in this group of adolescents. One context where such factors may be present is the school. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived problematic familial alcohol use and students’ stress-related complaints, and specifically to explore if the school’s degree of student focus can buffer against any such negative health consequences of problem drinking at home.

Methods Data were drawn from four separate surveys, the Stockholm School Survey (SSS) and the Stockholm Teacher Survey (STS) conducted in 2014 and 2016 among 7,944 students (~ 15–16 years) and 2,024 teachers in 147 Stockholm senior-level school units. Perceived problematic familial alcohol use was measured by one item in the SSS. Stress-related complaints were captured by co-occurring somatic complaints and psychological distress, and reported by students in the SSS. The school’s student focus was measured by an index based on teachers’ ratings of four items in the STS. A set of covariates at the student and the school level were also included. Two-level binary logistic and linear regression models were performed.

Results Perceived problematic familial alcohol use was linked with an increased likelihood of reporting co-occurring somatic complaints as well as psychological distress. Cross-level interactions revealed that the association between perceived problematic familial alcohol use and co-occurring somatic complaints was weaker among students attending schools with stronger teacher-rated student focus. Regarding psychological distress, the association was weaker for students attending schools with intermediate or strong teacher-rated student focus, compared with those attending schools with weaker teacher-rated student focus.

Conclusions The findings provide support for the assumption that favourable conditions in schools can buffer against negative health consequences of problematic conditions in the family, thus serving a compensatory role.

Introduction: Protective factors of adolescent gambling at the school level and their buffering potential are scarcely explored in prior research. This study aims to examine the protective possibility of low student–teacher ratio on youth gambling, both directly and by moderating the effect of low school performance. Methods: Data were derived from the 2016 Stockholm school survey, collected among 5,221 grade 11 students (~17–18 years) in 46 schools, with information on schools’ composition and student–teacher ratio obtained through registers. Gambling and risk gambling were coded as binary variables. School performance was captured by self-reported marks in three core subjects, dichotomised into average/above average and below average, respectively. Student-teacher ratio was used both as a continuous and trichotomised variable. Two-level binary logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: A below average school performance was associated with gambling and risk gambling but the association with gambling was only statistically significant at the 10%-level in the fully adjusted model. Student-teacher ratio was not directly associated with gambling and risk gambling but moderated the associations between school performance and both gambling and risk gambling, as these relationships were less pronounced in schools with a low student–teacher ratio. Conclusions: In sum, a low student–teacher ratio may protect students from gambling and risk gambling by buffering against the adverse effects of other risk factors, such as poor school performance. These findings suggest that a higher teacher density in upper secondary schools can be beneficial beyond school matters by positively influencing student behaviour outside of school. 

Aim: To investigate the associations between problematic familial alcohol use and adolescent subjective health, binge drinking, relationships with parents, school performance, and future orientation, and to study whether these associations differ in relation to parental education. Methods: Cross-sectional data from the Stockholm School Survey (SSS) collected among students in the 9th and 11th grades in 2018 and in 2020 were used (n = 19,415). Subjective health, parent-youth relationships, and school performance were coded as continuous variables; binge drinking and future orientation were coded as binary variables. Familial drinking included three categories: problematic; don't know/missing; and not problematic. Parental university education distinguished between adolescents with two, one, or no university-educated parent(s). Control variables included gender, grade, family structure, migration background, parental unemployment, and survey year. Linear and binary logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Problematic familial alcohol use was associated with worsened subjective health, a higher likelihood of engaging in binge drinking, worse relationships with parents, and a higher likelihood of having a pessimistic future orientation, even when adjusting for all control variables. Having less than two university-educated parents was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting problematic familial alcohol use. Parental university education moderated the association between problematic familial alcohol use and binge drinking as this relationship was stronger for adolescents with no and one university-educated parent(s). Conclusions: Adolescents with problematic familial alcohol use fared worse with regards to all studied outcomes, except for school performance. Parental university education only moderated the association between problematic familial alcohol use and binge drinking. However, since problematic familial alcohol use was more common among adolescents with less than two university-educated parents, we argue that at the group level, this category may be more negatively affected by alcohol abuse in the family. Policy interventions could benefit from having a socioeconomic perspective on how children are affected by alcohol's harms to others.

The present study investigated the associations that student gambling and risk gambling share with a) students’ own experiences of their situation in school, b) school performance, and c) truancy. Data from the 2020 Stockholm School Survey were used, with information collected among 10,901 students in grades 9 (15–16 years) and 11 (17–18 years) from 145 schools in Stockholm Municipality. The studied school-related factors were school satisfaction, perceived teacher caring, perceived school order, school performance, and truancy. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed, with robust errors clustering at the school level. Students’ perceived teacher caring and perceived school order were inversely associated with both gambling and risk gambling, while truancy was positively associated with both gambling and risk gambling, even when mutually adjusting for all school-related factors simultaneously. School satisfaction was inversely associated with gambling, and school performance was inversely associated with risk gambling, when mutually adjusting for all school-related factors simultaneously. In sum, more positive experiences of the situation in school, higher school performance, and not playing truant were linked with a lower likelihood of gambling and risk gambling among students. The findings suggest that students’ situation in school can help to identify those at risk for gambling problems.

Victims of bullying are at an increased risk not only of developing adverse mental health, but also of engaging in health risk behaviours. One way in which adolescents may cope with the health-related consequences of bullying victimisation is through substance use such as alcohol and narcotics, as posited by the self-medication hypothesis. Indeed, previous research has found a link between traditional (face-to-face) bullying victimisation and alcohol use among adolescents, albeit with some inconsistencies. However, studies examining both traditional bullying and cyberbullying among youth often report an association only between cyberbullying victimisation and drinking. The current study seeks to add to this field of research by analysing the predictive capacity of traditional and cyberbullying victimisation for youth drinking whilst also adjusting for bullying perpetration and sociodemographic characteristics. In the analyses, we distinguished between occasional and frequent victimisation, and performed separate investigations of how specific types of traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimisation are related to youth drinking. Data were obtained from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey, with pooled cross-sectional information from 2013/14 and 2017/18 collected among 13- and 15-year-old students (n =7126). Any alcohol use and drunkenness during the past 30 days were used as dependent variables. The respondents were categorised as non-victims, occasional victims, and frequent victims of traditional and cyberbullying, respectively. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between bullying victimisation and youth drinking. The results showed that 21.2% of students reported that they had been bullied at least once or twice in the past months, either as victims of traditional bullying only (8.3%), cyberbullying only (7.8%), or both (5.1%). When both types of bullying victimisation were mutually adjusted for, only cyberbullying remained significantly associated with an increased risk of drinking. However, when specific types of face-to-face bullying victimisation were analysed, several statistically significant associations with youth drinking were found, even when controlling for cyberbullying victimisation. Associations with any alcohol use and drunkenness were overall very similar. To conclude, this study corroborates previous research which has shown youth drinking to be more consistently related with cyberbullying victimisation than with traditional bullying victimisation. The study also extends previous knowledge by showing that the association between traditional bullying victimisation and youth drinking differs depending on the operationalisation of victimisation. Future research might benefit from examining this more thoroughly. The findings highlight that interventions targeting bullying and its effects should consider both face-to-face and online victimisation.