The Relationship Between Students' Perceptions of Their Family Relationship Environment and Their Alcohol Consumption Behaviors

Abstract

This thesis investigated the relationship between students' perceptions of their family relationship environment and their alcohol consumption behaviors. The family relationship environment was defined by the amount of control and support that students received from their parents and alcohol consumption behaviors were both the amount and frequency of student drinking. Gender, race, age, and time having lived away from were also independent variables in this study. The data used in this investigation was collected from a sample of 400 students who live on campus at the University of Maryland.

Four Pearson r Correlations concluded no significant relationships between support and frequency, support and amount, control and frequency, and control and amount. Hierarchical multiple regressions confirmed a relationship between the demographic variables but not one for support and control. Although the generalizability of these results is limited, the findings offer implications for practice and directions for future research.