Parenting style linked to alcohol use

Having an authoritarian mother may increase the likelihood that an individual develops alcohol-related problems, according to a new study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Researchers from Yale, Arizona State University and the University of Washington found that higher levels of maternal authoritarianism correlated with higher levels of self-concealment — the act of hiding information that might be negatively perceived by others. Self-concealment was in turn linked to impaired control over ingestion of alcoholic substances.

“There’s a degree of congruence between parenting styles and self-concealment,” said Robert Leeman, Yale psychiatry professor and one of the study’s authors.