Children's behavioural reactions to marital conflict as a function of parents' conflict behaviours and alcohol problems

Investigating key latent factors influencing alcohol consumption among the tribal male adolescents in Dooars region, West Bengal

BACKGROUND

Alcohol consumption among tribal male adolescents in India is a significant social concern. Tribal adolescents are particularly vulnerable and tend to lean toward alcohol addiction. Therefore, it is crucial to introduce some necessary footsteps to reduce alcohol consumption. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the association of various latent factors with the alcohol-drinking behavior of tribal adolescents.

METHODS

The study collected data from 600 tribal adolescents from the Dooars region, with 241 of them reported consuming alcohol. The study aimed to confirm the theoretical development of hypotheses regarding peer pressure, parental discord, stress, attitude toward alcohol, and food insecurity as exogenous latent factors influencing the alcohol-drinking behavior of tribal adolescents. In this context, the study adopted both measurement and structural models using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

RESULTS

The findings revealed a significant path relationship between alcohol drinking behavior and various exogenous factors like peer pressure (β = 0.214, p = .000), parental discord (β = 0.121, p = .009), stress (β = 0.170, p = .000), attitude toward alcohol (β = 0.110, p = .004), and food insecurity (β = 0.510, p = .000). This study developed a reflective measurement model, and the evaluation of reflective measurement models was conducted, assessing internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity, yielding satisfactory results.

CONCLUSION

To tackle alcohol issues among tribal adolescents in the Dooars region, effective strategies should be employed. These include educating in schools, highlighting tribal role models, aiding peers with alcohol dependence, providing life skills training, and addressing parental discord and food insecurity through awareness campaigns, workshops, and better infrastructure.

Parental Problem Drinking and Maladaptive Personality Features in Children: The Role of Marital Conflict

The personality characteristics of children of exposed to parental problem drinking have been of interest to clinicians and researchers for several decades, but personality research on this population often focuses on identifying a unique cluster of adult personality traits. The current study adopts a cutting-edge dimensional approach to understanding personality pathology as extreme variants of the five factor model, and examines pathways of risk to personality pathology through marital conflict and emotional insecurity. Participants were 199 two-parent families with a child between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Parents completed questionnaire measures of their problem drinking, marital conflict, child emotional insecurity (i.e., emotional reactivity to conflict), and child maladaptive personality traits. Structural equation models found an indirect pathway from mother and father problem drinking to pathological child disagreeableness, introversion, emotional instability, and compulsivity via greater mother destructive marital conflict behavior and child emotional reactivity to conflict. There was also some evidence that this pathway of effects was stronger for girls than for boys. Findings support the use of a dimensional approach to understanding maladaptive personality among individuals exposed to parental problem drinking.