Economic Insecurity, Poverty, and Parental Alcohol Misuse

• Main Author: Tucciarone, Joey
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2021
• Subjects: economic insecurity; housing insecurity; food insecurity; poverty; parental alcohol misuse; Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms; Clinical Epidemiology; Community Health and Preventive Medicine; Mental Disorders; Psychological Phenomena and Processes; Public Health Education and Promotion
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3963; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5472&context=etd

Because parental alcohol misuse is associated with numerous negative outcomes for drinkers and other family members, it is important to examine factors predictive of alcohol misuse patterns among parents living with at least one child under the age of 18. Two possible factors include economic insecurity and poverty. This study sought to address whether measures of economic insecurity (i.e., housing and/or food insecurity in the past 12 months) and a dichotomous measure of poverty predict parental binge drinking and parental heavy alcohol consumption in a large population-based sample. It was hypothesized that economic insecurity and poverty, analyzed separately, would predict both occurrence of parental alcohol misuse and amount of alcohol consumed. Results did not support hypotheses; rather, where significant, they indicated that measures of economic insecurity and poverty negatively predicted parental alcohol misuse. However, effect sizes were small and preclude practical application. Findings are discussed and future research directions are identified.