Discussion week 4

This article helps to explain the prevalence of alcohol abuse among adolescents, and also seeks
to determine the causes of the high levels of misuse of alcohol among adolescents. It is
interesting that this article points out that the rate of alcohol misuse continues to increase among
adolescents who choose to engage in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. In addition, this
article does a good job of clarifying the different causes of alcohol misuse that are studied by
researchers. This article analyzes and exposes the fact that parental guidance, as well as Parental
support, or the lack thereof, is a large contributing factor to the statistical probability of an
adolescent engaging in the misuse of alcoholic beverages. Many individuals in society tend to
place most of the blame for an adolescent's actions on the individual, due to the fact that these
individuals are largely viewed as being of an age in which they can make their own decisions,
but this article exposes the fact that the rudimentary development of the thinking patterns of
adolescents in relation to substance abuse, are largely influenced by parental factors,
demographic social factors, and biological factors. The research design that was used in this
article is a quantitative research design, and makes use of a six way longitudinal model in order
to arrive at its findings. In addition, a three-way structural equation model is also used to
research some of the mitigating factors involved with alcohol misuse among adolescents
[Barnes, Grace M, 2000].
I believe that the quantitative research design, in the form of a 6 wave longitudinal study, is
appropriate for this form of research, due to the fact that various factors be analyzed in order to
arrive at research conclusions. Groups of individuals in this study are being compared in relation
to their rate of misuse of alcoholic beverages based on the degree of parental will support that
they have received, how early they started alcohol misuse, and many of the factors.

References
The Effects of Parenting on the Development of Adolescent Alcohol Misuse: A Six-Wave Latent
Growth Model. By: Barnes, Grace M.; Reifman, Alan S.; Farrell, Michael P.; Dintcheff, Barbara
A.. Journal of Marriage & Family, Feb2000, Vol. 62 Issue 1, p175, 12p: