In addition, poor parental monitoring may lead to greater affiliation with substance-using peers, as youth turn to peers to have emotional needs met (Barrett & Turner, 2006; Neher & Short, 1998). Kuntsche and Kuendig (2006) found that the risk of drinking associated with being in a single-parent family was greatly reduced when controlling for peer drinking, suggesting that deviant peer affiliation may mediate the effects of parental divorce/separation on alcohol use. Thus, experiencing divorce/separation might set up a developmental cascade where early adverse events lead to reduced monitoring, which leads to deviant peers/increased access to alcohol and ultimately earlier initiation with drinking.
