The Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS) (APSALS)

May 2, 2021 updated by: Professor Richard P Mattick, The University of New South Wales
Parents can positively influence their children's alcohol use. One strategy they use is to provide their children with alcohol, believing it is the best way to teach their children how to drink responsibly. The impact of parental supply is not well understood and may be unintentionally harmful. This study will research the consequences of parental supply within the broader context of parent, child and peer relationships. It will help to determine how parental supply influences the different patterns of adolescent alcohol consumption over time, providing essential information to help parents prevent alcohol misuse in their children. Parents can play a pivotal role in prevention of alcohol misuse, but at present we don't know exactly how.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Detailed Description

Title: The Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS): Can parents teach their children to drink alcohol responsibly? Or, is one drop a drop too many?

Background: The Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS) was established to investigate the short- and long-term associations between exposure to parental alcohol provision, early adolescent alcohol initiation, subsequent alcohol use, and alcohol-related harms, controlling for a wide range of parental, child, familial, peer, and contextual covariates. The cohort commenced with 1927 parent-child dyads comprised of Australian Grade 7 school students, and a parent/guardian. Baseline, one- and two-year follow-up data have been collected, and a three-year follow-up is underway. The data collected include child, familial, parental, and peer factors addressing demographics, alcohol use and supply, parenting practices, other substance use, adolescent behaviours, and peer influences. Baseline data show that only 5.8% of the Grade 7 adolescents had initiated alcohol consumption (of a whole serve of alcohol). Thus, the cohort is ideal for prospectively examining predictors of initiation and progression of alcohol use, which increases markedly through adolescence. Results to date have highlighted the importance of distinguishing between sipping and drinking of full serves of alcohol in the measurement of adolescent alcohol use as these represent distinct behaviours which occur in different environments.

Aims: The aims of this study are to determine if:

  1. Parental supply is associated with the progression (acceleration/deceleration) in adolescent drinking over time;
  2. The immediate and broader contextual factors mediate or moderate the relationship between parental supply and progression in adolescent drinking over time.

Design: A longitudinal study across three states in Australia (New South Wales, Tasmania, and Western Australia).

Recruitment: Catholic, Independent and Government school in NSW, Tasmania and Western Australia.

Data analysis: Logistic and binomial regression, and multi-level modelling will be used, and latent growth curve modelling (LGCM) within the framework of structural equations modelling (SEM). Moderating and mediating variables, both time variant (e.g., association with alcohol using peers) and time-invariant (e.g. gender) will be modelled. Outcome variables will be modelled using appropriate parametric distributions - Poisson distributions for count data outcomes and binomial distributions for categorical data outcomes. All analyses will be conducted in MPlus v5.2 or Stata. As recommended by Graham imputation of missing data will be done.

Sample size calculations: Due to the flexibility of the modelling approach taken (i.e., the number of parameters allowed to vary), there are a number of different scenarios that can be tested to determine an adequate sample size. The primary interest is in differences in drinking over time between groups who were supplied or not supplied alcohol. Thus, regression analysis will address drinking on a dummy-coded "parental supply" variable. It is hypothesised that parental supply of alcohol would alter the trajectory of harmful drinking by a regression coefficient of ±0.2. This regression coefficient is equivalent to a medium effect size difference between groups, a result which is not unexpected given past research. It was assumed that attrition would result in around 20% missing data on each subsequent measurement occasion. Based on simulation studies, and factoring in potential mediators and moderators, 600 children are required at a minimum. However, as small cell sizes for some associations may affect power, a final sample of ~1800 children and parents has been recruited.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

1927

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Australia
    • New South Wales
      • Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2052
        • University of New South Wales

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

11 years to 13 years (CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The cohort includes 1927 Australian adolescents born from 1996-1999 (mean age at baseline: 12.9 years), and a parent or guardian (typically the mother (in 86.3% of dyads; mean age at baseline: 43.9 years)).

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Grade 7 High School enrolment
  • Parental signed informed consent provided

Exclusion Criteria:

  • none

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Adolescents
1927 Grade 7 high school students
Parent
A parent of each of the 1927 Grade 7 high school students

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Frequency of alcohol consumption
Time Frame: 12 month
Frequency of alcohol consumption within past 12 months, categorized as: none, 1 day/month, 2-3 days/month, 1 day/week, 2 days/week, 3 days/week, 4 days/week, 5 days/week, 6 days/week, every day.
12 month
Typical quantity of alcohol consumption
Time Frame: 12 month
Quantity of alcohol consumption within past 12 months measured as number of standard drinks (an Australian standard drink contains 10g alcohol).
12 month
Frequency of binge drinking
Time Frame: 12 month
Frequency of drinking more than 4 standard drinks in the past 12 months
12 month
Experience of alcohol related harms
Time Frame: 12 months
17 item scale of alcohol related harms, adapted from the School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project. Scores range from 0 to 85, with higher scores indicating greater experience of harms.
12 months
Symptoms of alcohol abuse, dependence and alcohol use disorder
Time Frame: 12 months
Symptoms of alcohol abuse, dependence, and alcohol use disorder measured via the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children 4th Edition. Items correspond to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition symptoms of alcohol abuse (4 symptoms), dependence (7 symptoms), and alcohol use disorder (11 symptoms).
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

The University of New South Wales

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: RICHARD P MATTICK, PhD, NATIONAL DRUG AND ALCOHOL RESEARCH CENTRE, UNSW AUSTRALIA
  • Principal Investigator: AMY PEACOCK, PhD, NATIONAL DRUG AND ALCOHOL RESEARCH CENTRE, UNSW AUSTRALIA

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

March 1, 2010

Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED)

December 1, 2021

Study Completion (ANTICIPATED)

December 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 29, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 30, 2014

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

October 31, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

May 6, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 2, 2021

Last Verified

May 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DP:1096668

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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