Can the school context moderate the protective effect of parental support on adolescents' alcohol trajectories in urban Chicago?

Background: Research explaining school effects on alcohol use is scare. This study examined the interactive effect between family support and school characteristics (size, poverty, and sector) on adolescents' alcohol use trajectories in Chicago. Methods: Longitudinal and multilevel data were from the Project of Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods and the Common Core of Data (National Center for Educational Statistics). The sample consisted of 2205 adolescents in 558 schools. A three-level hierarchical linear model was used to estimate multilevel growth curve models and school effects on alcohol trajectories. Results: In addition to the strong relationship between parental support and alcohol trajectories; the results also found school effects on the average baseline of alcohol use and the rates of change across time. Interestingly, high levels of parental support were more effective in preventing alcohol use in public schools, while adolescents attending private schools with low levels of parental support were more likely to consume alcohol. Similarly, students attending public schools with higher rates of poverty who enjoy higher levels of parental support were less likely to consume alcohol compared to students with lower parental support attending lower rates of schools poverty. Conclusion: Key findings highlight the importance of the interaction between parental support and school characteristics meaning that protective factors provided by parents could be reinforced or diminished by the school context. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.