This study aims to:
• test different causal hypotheses explaining the longitudinal relationship between parental monitoring and alcohol use trajectories
• test the role of peer- and school-level factors in influencing individual drinking trajectories and monitoring
• investigate how patterns of monitoring dimensions (e.g. parental control and child disclosure) and their association with alcohol use change when considering other factors

To achieve these aims, this study was divided into a number of sections; path analysis investigating how parental monitoring and alcohol use are related; multilevel modelling, investigating how alcohol use, and parental monitoring varies between different schools, and finally; structural equation models to assess the direct and indirect associations between monitoring and other important family characteristics.

Key findings
• Children whose parents exert greater control over their free time activities tend to drink less frequently.
Early control has a lasting influence on alcohol use
• Higher rates of drinking in early adolescence leads to reduced levels of parent-controlled boundaries and limits at home
• Being in a school with a higher proportion of frequent drinkers is a risk factor for frequent drinking
• Girls who attend single-sex post-primary schools tend to drink more than pupils attending co-educational schools or male-only schools