The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1 - 77

Parental Notification of Alcohol or Drug-Related Violations

responses of parents to the current practice of
parental notification of alcohol or drug-related
violations involving students under the age of
21 living both on and off campus. The researchers sought to determine if the policy is serving
its purpose of encouraging communication
between parents and students in order to decrease substance use and abuse. The study was
conducted during the fall semester of 2009
at one mid-sized public land-grant institution
located in the Upper Midwest. Though the
institution implemented the parental notification policy in 2002, it had not been assessed
to determine its effectiveness since that time.
For this study, the word parent applies to
both parents and legal guardians of students
under the age of 21. However, for ease of
reading, both parents and legal guardians will
be referred to collectively as parents throughout the remainder of this manuscript.
Two research questions guided this study:
1. What are parents’ perceptions of the
notification process?
2. What actions did parents take as a result
of the notification?
Additional sub-questions provided a framework for answering the research questions.
These questions sought information about
parents’ opinions regarding (a) the appropriateness of notification, (b) the method of
notification, (c) the information provided in
the notification letter, and (d) whether or not
parents felt their student would make changes
in the consumption of alcohol or other drugs
as a result of the notification. Additionally,
parents were asked what, if any, actions they
took as a result of the notification, such as
having a conversation with their student or
taking disciplinary action.

RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
It is a common practice for colleges and universities to require students to live in campus
housing for their first academic year (Barefoot,
2005). Traditionally, most first-year students
are under the legal drinking age, and, as noted
previously, these students are at an increased
risk for misusing alcohol and other drugs and
experiencing negative consequences (LaBrie &
Cail, 2011; Sharmer, 2005). Due to this trend,
residence life staff are frequently in a position
to enforce campus policies related to underage alcohol and other drug use and can work
to prevent future violations. To that end, residence life officials may benefit from engaging
partners, such as parents, to help address the
growing problem of alcohol and other drug
use. Parental notification policies are seen as
an important tool in this effort.
There is a limited amount of research regarding parental notification policies. Previous
research has addressed the trends in implementing these policies (Palmer et al., 2003;
Watts, 2003), the perceptions of institutional
administrators regarding parental support for
the policies and the effectiveness of parental notification in reducing alcohol violations
(Lowery et al., 2005; Palmer et al., 2001; Turrisi
et al., 2000; Wheeler & Kennedy, 2009), and
the opinions of parents regarding whether or
not they would want to be notified should their
student be involved in an alcohol or drug violation (Clouse, 2003). There is little research regarding the opinions and reactions of parents
who have actually been notified of an alcohol
or drug-related violation in which their student
was involved. This study provides insight into
parents’ perceptions of the notification process
and the actions they take as a result of being
V O L U M E 3 9 , NO. 2 • 2 0 1 3

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1