The results have implications for prevention and early intervention programs for alcohol use, with potential modifications to address gender differences in the influence of mother’s emotional closeness to girls. Peer alcohol use was the strongest predictor of alcohol use and this effect was independent of family variables, reinforcing the importance of prevention strategies that target peer groups. The results also support the expansion of mainstream prevention strategies (typically school-based programs) to include parent-oriented prevention programs [e.g., 39], and indicate that cautious positions of parents on alcohol use throughout the teen years are particularly protective. Researchers have called for prevention programs that are sensitive to the specific needs of girls [12, 40, 41]. The results indicate that enhancement of mother-daughter bonds prior to or during the years from grades 7 to 9 may be protective, and this aligns with recent research showing that on-line strategies that build mother-daughter relationships are effective [41]. Family conflict had a weak association with girls’ subsequent alcohol use. Significance levels depended on the presence of collateral variables in the model (Table 2), and average family conflict
