Gender, Alcohol Consumption, and Parental Monitoring

The authors examined the relationships among gender, alcohol consump­tion, and parental monitoring. including television monitoring. Student volunteers (N = 150; 90% Caucasian, 79% women) participated by reporting retrospective general parental monitoring, television monitoring, and recent drinking behaviors. On the basis of the retrospective reports by the participants, when they were growing up the men received less overall parental monitoring but not less television monitoring than the women. Womenʹs drinking quantity was correlated with parental monitoring, whereas menʹs drinking frequency was associated with both parental monitoring and television monitor­ing. Interestingly, menʹs hinge drinking frequency was correlated with television moni­toring but not with overall parental monitoring, whereas womenʹs binge drinking fre­ quency was correlated with overall parental monitoring but not with television monitoring. Implications for preventing alcohol misuse and ideas for future research are discussed.