This study examines the utility of a process model which links economic pressure and adolescent use of alcohol in a sample of 76 rural families from a midwestern state. A series of path analyses trace the empirical relations from perceived economic problems through parents' feelings of depression/hostility and their observed hostile/irritable behaviors to the problematic use of alcohol and the antisocial behavior of early adolescents. The findings suggest that parental hostility directed toward children is associated with adolescent antisocial behavior through a process of social learning that leads to deviant friends and alcohol use. Conflict in the marriage is directly related to adolescent drinking as a possible coping response to family stress and, perhaps, through the disruption of parents' ability to function as effective agents of social control.
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