Parent’s concerns about Leavers celebrations: A cross-sectional study

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Health Promotion Journal of Australia

ISSN

10361073

First Page

1

Last Page

4

Publisher

Wiley

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

31784

Funders

Healthway, the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation

Comments

Lombardi, K., Gregory, S., Johnston, R., Gilligan, C., Beatty, S., Thomas, L., & Shaw, T. (2020). Parent's concerns about leavers celebrations: A cross‐sectional study. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 32(2), 227-230. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.360

Abstract

© 2020 Australian Health Promotion Association Issue Addressed: “Schoolies’ or “Leavers’ is a mass celebration of the end of compulsory schooling where excessive drinking is considered integral to the experience. Leavers are at risk of alcohol-related harms. This paper reports the concerns of parents for their Year 12 students (age 17 years) when attending Leavers celebrations. Methods: Parents of Year 12 students (n = 87) were asked to complete a survey in relation to their eldest school-aged child. Six items relating to parents’ level of “concern’ about Leavers celebrations were measured on a 5-point scale. Results: Parents were concerned about their child experiencing peer pressure to consume alcohol (60%), 30% were neutral or unconcerned about peer pressure. Almost two thirds of parents were concerned about their child being injured as a result of their own alcohol use (66.7%). Parental concern relating to their child being injured because of others’ alcohol use rated most highly (88.5%). Conclusions: Findings suggested that parents were more concerned with harm caused to their child by others than the use of alcohol by their own child. Parents were somewhat less concerned with peer pressure to drink, though given peer influence is a major factor in young people's decisions regarding alcohol, parents' apparent confidence in their children's capacity to resist peer pressure may be inflated. So What?: Future interventions reinforcing the important role that parents play in the decisions that young people make while at Leavers have the potential to reduce their alcohol intake and subsequent alcohol-related harm.

DOI

10.1002/hpja.360

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