Parental education differentially predicts young adults' frequency and quantity of alcohol use in a longitudinal Swedish sample

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption contributes to health inequalities, but few studies have examined how socially differentiated alcohol use develops across the life course. In this study, we examine how one aspect of childhood socioeconomic position (parental education) relates to two often-conflated young adult drinking patterns: drinking frequency and quantity per occasion. Using a life course perspective, we also explore whether parental drinking patterns or young adults’ own educational attainment might account for such associations. METHODS: This study used longitudinal data from the nationally representative Swedish Level of Living Surveys (LNU). Young adults’ (aged 20–28, n = 803) drinking patterns and educational attainment were determined through the LNU 2010 and official registers. A decade earlier, parents self-reported their education and drinking patterns in the LNU 2000 and Partner-LNU 2000. RESULTS: Logistic regression models showed that high parental education predicted young adult frequent drinking, while low parental education predicted young adult high quantity drinking. Drinking patterns were associated inter-generationally, but parental alcohol use did not account for differences in young adult drinking patterns by parental education. Young adults’ own education similarly predicted their drinking patterns but did not account for differences in drinking frequency by parental education. Differences in drinking quantity by parental education were no longer significant when young adults’ own education was included in the final model. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that parental education constitutes an early-life structural position that confers differential risk for young adult drinking patterns. Young adults whose parents had low education were less likely to drink frequently but were more likely to drink heavily per occasion, a drinking pattern that may place more disadvantaged young adults at a greater health risk.