Harm reduction strategies can mitigate against some of the deleterious effects of alcohol on families. These strategies are most feasible and cost-effective when they can be targeted at those who are most at risk. Previous studies examining the relation between parents’ alcohol use and their children’s psychological adjustment have failed to consider important contextual questions such as drinking motives. The current investigation set out to identify the extent to which parents’ drinking motives predict internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in their children. The investigation consisted of cross sectional analysis of parents’ drinking motives and their children’s adjustment using data from 154 families recruited from the local community. Utilizing Bayesian data analytic techniques, we examined the role of parents’ drinking motives along with possible mediating variables including familial conflict, parental depression, and parenting style. Results showed that maternal social drinking motives were better predictors of children’s maladjustment than either coping or enhancement drinking motives. Unexpectedly, maternal enhancement drinking motives were associated with fewer adjustment problems. Maternal enhancement drinking motives also predicted higher levels of collaborative conflict resolution and lower levels of parental depression, both of which were associated with reduced levels of children’s externalizing problems. Paternal alcohol consumption and drinking motives were not associated with children’s internalizing or externalizing problems. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study examined the association between Swedish adolescents’ self-reported psychosomatic health complaints and parental alcohol drinking problems controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Data was obtained from a nationally representative sample from 2021, the national survey of the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN) survey. Our study sample had 9,032 students from grades 9 (15-16 years) and 11 (17-18 years) from randomly selected 350 schools in Sweden. Adolescents’ self-reported psychosomatic complaints were coded into dependent variable. The main independent variable was adolescents’ perceived parental alcohol drinking problems, measured by the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-6) scale. Adolescents’ self-reported sociodemographic characteristicswere were control variables. We performed a chi2 significance test and binary logistic regression analysis. Adolescents with perceived parental drinking problems had higher odds of reporting psychosomatic complaints than adolescents with no perceived parental drinking problems. This association remained statistically significant in a fully adjusted model with all control variables. The association was stronger among grade 9 adolescents than grade 11 adolescents. Adolescents with perceived parental drinking problems were more likely to report subjective psychosomatic health complaints. Besides universal programes, this vulnerable group of adolescents and parents might benefit more from targeted interventions in schools and healthcare centres.