Three Generation Studies: Methodological Challenges and Promise

Prospective Intergenerational Associations between Parents' and Children's Illicit Substance Use During Adolescence

OBJECTIVE

Intergenerational studies have identified relations between adolescents' and their future offspring's cannabis and alcohol use, but rarely have examined the association for other illicit drug use. Given the low prevalence of such use in community populations, we pooled data from three prospective intergenerational studies to test this link.

METHOD

Participants were 1,060 children of 937 parents who had been repeatedly assessed since early adolescence. Children and parents reported on their use of cocaine, stimulants, hallucinogens, sedatives/tranquilizers, and opiates/narcotics from ages 10 to 18 years. Intergenerational similarities in any versus no use of these drugs were formally modeled using logistic regression. Patterns also were descriptively analyzed.

RESULTS

Parent illicit substance use was associated with significantly higher odds of child use (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval] = 2.682 [1.328-5.416], p = 0.006). However, intergenerational continuity was modest; 87% of children whose parent used illicit drugs in adolescence did not use such drugs, and 77% of parents of children who used illicit drugs had not themselves used these drugs during adolescence.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of illicit substances by parents during their teenage years poses a risk for their offspring's similar behaviors. However, the discontinuity of these behaviors across generations implies children are largely resilient to or protected from this risk, and conversely that other aspects of parents' and children's experiences or characteristics may be more powerful risks for children's illicit drug use than this transgenerational influence.

The future of intergenerational transmission research: A prospective, three-generation approach

Dr. Dante Cicchetti's pioneering theory and research on developmental psychopathology have been fundamental to the proliferation of research on intergenerational transmission over the last 40 years. In part due to this foundation, much has been learned about continuities and discontinuities in child maltreatment, attachment, parenting, and psychopathology across generations. Looking towards the future, we propose that this field stands to benefit from a prospective, three-generation approach. Specifically, following established prospective, longitudinal cohorts of children over their transition to parenting the next generation will afford the opportunity to investigate the developmental origins of intergenerational transmission. This approach also can address key outstanding questions and methodological limitations in the extant literature related to the confounding of retrospective and prospective measures; examination of mediators and moderators; and investigation of the roles of biology, environment, and their interplay. After considering these advantages, we offer several considerations and recommendations for future research, many of which are broadly applicable to the study of two or more generations. We hope that this discussion will inspire the leveraging of existing prospective cohorts to carry forward Dr. Cicchetti's remarkable contributions, with the ultimate aim to inform the development of preventions and interventions that disrupt deleterious intergenerational cycles.

What stands behind the gender gap in entrepreneurship? Untangling the intergenerational parental role

This research examines the entrepreneurship gender gap by offering an additional novel explanation for the higher share of men in entrepreneurial activity focusing on intergenerational parental role. Participants (N = 1288) aged 18-81, including 259 actual entrepreneurs, completed questionnaires about entrepreneurship tendency, personality traits and socioeconomic background. The gender gap in actual entrepreneurship continues a significant difference in entrepreneurial tendency, which is developed in the first and the second stages of the entrepreneurial trajectory. When women reach the third stage of entrepreneurial development, the execution stage, they have already acquired a self-perception of an incapable and incommensurate entrepreneurial personality. The results indicate that role modeling behavioral channel significantly accounts for the gender gap in entrepreneurial personality. The results suggest that both parents contribute to women's' inferior perception of entrepreneurial personality and that their contribution affects all four aspects of the entrepreneurial tendency. It appears that the impact of fathers' role modeling is larger than that of mothers, and furthermore fathers transfer other entrepreneurial role models from their side in the family.

Agency, linked lives and historical time: evidence from the longitudinal three-generation Youth Development Study

Whereas Glen Elder and associates' principles of the life course are usually articulated and investigated individually, they reference analytic distinctions that simplify their empirical coexistence and mutual interrelation. This article illustrates this complexity by focusing on the principle of agency and its intersections with 'linked lives' and 'time and place'. Data are drawn from the Youth Development Study (YDS), which has followed a Minnesota cohort (G2, born 1973-74) from mid-adolescence (ages 14-15) to midlife (ages 45-46). The YDS also includes G1 parents and G3 children, the latter surveyed at about the same age as their parents were when the research began. The findings indicate that multiple agentic orientations, observed in adolescence, affect adult attainments; they are shaped by the 'linked lives' of grandparents, parents and children over longer periods of time than previously recognised; and their associations with educational achievement are historically specific. Whereas the 'linked lives' of parents and adolescents are generally studied contemporaneously, the agentic orientations of parents, measured as teenagers, were found to predict the same psychological resources in their adolescent children (self-concept of ability, optimism and economic efficacy) decades later. We also found evidence that parents' occupational values continue to influence the values of their children as the children's biographies unfold. Suggesting a historic shift in the very meaning and behavioural consequences of agentic orientations, optimism and efficacy replaced educational ambition as significant predictors of academic achievement.

Intergenerational Patterns in Offending: Lessons from the Rochester Intergenerational Study-ASC Division of Developmental and Life Course Criminology David P. Farrington Lecture, 2019

PURPOSE

In recent years, criminology has seen an increase in the number of 3-generation, prospective studies of offending. The most fundamental question posed by these studies is whether, and to what extent, parental involvement in adolescent delinquency increases the risk of offending by their offspring. There are several important substantive and methodological challenges that need to be confronted in assessing the intergenerational effect including the examination of moderating influences that can change the level of intergenerational continuity and methodological issues as definitional elasticity-the impact on the level of intergenerational continuity that is likely to be observed based on a) how offending is defined and b) how the inherent heterogeneity in offending is taken into accounted.

METHODS

To examine these issues I use data from the Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS), an extension of the original Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). RYDS began data collection in 1988 with a sample of 1000 adolescents and one of their parents. The intergenerational study began in 1999 by adding a third generation member - the oldest biological child of the initial adolescent participants - and following them over time with 19 annual assessments.

RESULTS

Overall, there is a significant positive association between a parent's involvement in adolescent delinquency and the likelihood that their offspring will also be involved in delinquency. That overall relationship, however, masks substantial internal variability. The significance and size of the intergenerational effect varies by such factors as the level of ongoing contact between fathers and their children and the child's gender. It is also influenced by methodological considerations such as definitional elasticity. Under some definitions of delinquent behavior, a robust relationship between the parent's delinquency and the child's is observed while under other definitions there is no significant relationship.

CONCLUSION

There is, as of now, no clear and consistent answer to the question of whether or not children follow in the footsteps of their parents with respect to delinquency. The field of intergenerational study, which is still relatively new, needs to confront more directly and systematically how both substantive and methodological issues that can influence estimates of the intergenerational effect.

Intergenerational attachment orientations: Gender differences and environmental contribution

After more than four decades of research and almost 100 attachment studies, the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of attachment still remain unclear. To better understand the mechanisms moderating the associations of attachment orientations from one generation to the next, this empirical study examined the roles of 1) shared and non-shared environmental factors that characterize critical events in adulthood such as career choice, income and child care; 2) gender differences in attachment between parents (Generation 1, G1) and their adult offspring (Generation 2, G2) and their possible interactions. A sample of 321 families with G2 adults aged 18 and over and two G1 parents up to the age of 81 took part in this study. Both generations completed the Experiences in Close Relationships attachment measure as well as a comprehensive detailed measure of current core characteristics in adulthood (e.g. employment status, income, whether they had children) and demographic variables (gender, age). The findings suggest that the associations between the attachment orientations of G1 and the attachment orientations of G2 were moderated by G2’s income, their G1 paternal income and employment status, whether G2 had children (G3) of their own, and their family status after controlling for the age of G2, and the age of both paternal and maternal G1. When the associations for both paternal and maternal G1attachment orientation with both their male and female G2 was analyzed separately, this accounted for 35% of the variance of males’ G2 attachment orientation. The discussion focuses on the contribution of these findings to attachment theory and draws clinical conclusions.

Decline of "the American Dream"? Outlook toward the Future across Three Generations of Midwest Families

Expansion of higher education and long-term economic growth have fostered high aspirations among adolescents. Recently, however, deteriorating labor force opportunities, particularly since the "Great Recession," and rising inequality have challenged the "American Dream." To assess how parental and adolescent outlooks have evolved over time, we examine shifts in future orientations across three generations of Midwest American families. Our unique data archive from the Youth Development Study includes 266 Generation 1 and Generation 2 parent-child dyads and 422 Generation 3 children. We assess change over two decades in parental expectations for their children's educational attainments (comparing G1 and G2) and in adolescents' socioeconomic aspirations, life course optimism, and anticipated work-family conflict (comparing G2 and G3). An initial between-families analysis examines aggregate change across generations; a second fixed-effects analysis assesses attitudinal differences between parents and children in the same families and the extent to which generational shifts in family circumstances and adolescents' educational performance account for change in adolescents' future orientations. We find that "millennial" adolescents had more positive outlooks than "Gen X" parents did at the same age. Generational increase in adolescent socioeconomic aspirations held even when socioeconomic origin, parent-child relationship quality, adolescent school performance, and other predictors were controlled. We find evidence that growing adolescent optimism across generations is attributable to rising parental educational expectations, increasing adolescent grades in school, and higher-quality parent-child relationships. We conclude that the "American Dream" is still alive for many contemporary parents and their adolescent children.

Labour market attachment among parents and self-rated health of their offspring: an intergenerational study

Background

Unemployment influences the individual’s health, whether this effect passes through generations is less studied. The aim of this intergenerational study was to investigate whether parents’ labour market attachment (LMA) were associated with self-rated health (SRH) among adolescents using preceding labour market events.

Methods

The study was performed using questionnaire data from the Danish Future Occupation of Children and Adolescents cohort (the FOCA cohort) of 13 100 adolescents (mean age 15.8 years) and their accompanying parents identified through registers. Adolescents’ SRH was measured using one item from SF-36. Information on parents’ LMA was obtained from a national register, analyzed on a weekly basis in a 5-year period before the adolescents completed the questionnaire. An integration indicator was calculated from an initial sequence analysis to determine how well the parents were integrated in the labour market. The association between the adolescents’ SRH and parents’ LMA was examined by logistic regression and an extended sequence analysis stratified on adolescents’ SRH.

Results

Totally, 29.1% of the adolescents reported moderate SRH. The adjusted odds ratios (OR) of moderate SRH was higher among adolescents of parents with low labour market integration (OR: 1.5 95% CI: 1.3–1.6 for fathers and OR: 1.4 95% CI: 1.2–1.5 for mothers). Also, adolescents with moderate SRH had parents who were less integrated in the labour market and had more weeks on non-employment benefits compared with the adolescents, who reported high SRH.

Conclusions

Unstable LMA among parents affected SRH among their adolescent children, indicating a negative effect of labour market marginalization across generations.

The reproduction of child maltreatment: An examination of adolescent problem behavior, substance use, and precocious transitions in the link between victimization and perpetration

Growing evidence suggests that maltreatment is reproduced across generations as victims of maltreatment are at an increased risk for maltreatment perpetration. Unfortunately, little information about mediating pathways exists to provide an explanation for why maltreatment begets maltreatment. We use the number of types of maltreatment experienced to predict later maltreatment perpetration and then examine two developmental pathways that may serve as bridges between maltreatment victimization and perpetration: adolescent problem behaviors and precocious transitions to adulthood. With prospective, longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, we assess the relevance of these pathways for the number of maltreatment experiences as well as the number of maltreatment victimization experiences by developmental period (i.e., childhood and adolescence). Our results demonstrate a significant relationship between maltreatment victimization and maltreatment perpetration. Adolescent delinquency and two precocious transitions, dropping out of school and independent living, as well as the accumulation of precocious transitions and problem behaviors, serve as mediators of this intergenerational relationship. Furthermore, the relationship between the number of types of maltreatment and subsequent perpetration is primarily driven by experiences of maltreatment during adolescence. We discuss the implications of these results and set an agenda for the development of programs and policies to interrupt the cycle of maltreatment.

Associations of Father's Lifetime Cannabis Use Disorder with Child's Initiation of Cannabis Use, Alcohol Use, and Sexual Intercourse by Child Gender

BACKGROUND

Early initiation of alcohol use, cannabis use, and sexual intercourse among adolescents is an important public health concern in the United States. Parents' history of substance use disorder is an important contributing factor for children's problem behaviors.

OBJECTIVES

The associations of fathers' lifetime cannabis use disorder with children's initiation of cannabis use, alcohol use, and sexual intercourse were examined. In addition, child's gender was considered as a moderator of each association.

METHODS

Data from two companion longitudinal studies was utilized, the Rochester Youth Developmental Study and its intergenerational extension, the Rochester Intergenerational Study. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of the father's lifetime cannabis use disorder with the child's initiation of cannabis use, alcohol use, and sexual intercourse. To test gender differences in the associations, the study sample was stratified by child's gender.

RESULTS

The average age of first cannabis use (b = -3.71, p < .05), alcohol use (b = -3.65, p < .05), and sexual intercourse (b = -2.94, p < .05) among daughters of fathers with a lifetime cannabis use disorder was lower than that of their counterparts after adjusting for all other control variables, whereas no significant differences were detected in a father-son relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

Homotypic continuity of cannabis use, as well as heterotypic continuity from the father's cannabis use to the child's alcohol use and sexual intercourse existed in a father-daughter relationship. These findings suggest that family-based interventions for female adolescents whose father has suffered from a cannabis use disorder be developed to prevent better adolescents' early substance use and sexual intercourse.

Intergenerational associations in physical maltreatment: Examination of mediation by delinquency and substance use, and moderated mediation by anger

Findings as to whether individuals' experiences of physical maltreatment from their parents in childhood predict their own perpetration of physical maltreatment toward their children in adulthood are mixed. Whether the maltreatment experienced is severe versus moderate or mild may relate to the strength of intergenerational associations. Furthermore, understanding of the roles of possible mediators (intervening mechanisms linking these behaviors) and moderators of the intervening mechanisms (factors associated with stronger or weaker mediated associations) is still relatively limited. These issues were examined in the present study. Mediating mechanisms based on a social learning model included antisocial behavior as assessed by criminal behaviors and substance use (alcohol and drug use), and the extent to which parental angry temperament moderated any indirect effects of antisocial behavior was also examined. To address these issues, data were used from Generations 2 and 3 of a prospective three-generational study, which is an extension of the Oregon Youth Study. Findings indicated modest intergenerational associations for severe physical maltreatment. There was a significant association of maltreatment history, particularly severe maltreatment with mothers' and fathers' delinquency. However, neither delinquency nor substance use showed significant mediational effects, and parental anger as a moderator of mediation did not reach significance.

Definitional Elasticity in the Measurement of Intergenerational Continuity in Substance Use

Increasingly, three generation studies have investigated intergenerational (IG) continuity and discontinuity in substance use and related problem behaviors. However, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the conceptual definition of continuity or to different types of discontinuity (resilience and escalation) or to measurement sensitivity, which affects not only the magnitudes of observed continuity but also factors that correlate with this linkage. This study uses longitudinal data on 427 parent-child dyads from the Rochester IG Study to study continuity and discontinuity in substance use over ages 14-18. Results suggest that the degree of IG continuity, resilience, and escalation in adolescent substance use, as well as correlates of each, depend heavily on how heterogeneity in the behavior is taken into account.

Exploring Intergenerational Continuity in Gang Membership

Little is known regarding intergenerational continuity in gang membership. Qualitative literature is suggestive of intergenerational parallelism yet no known research examines the causal mechanisms associated with this cycle, if it even exists. Prospective, longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) and the Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS) assess intergenerational continuity in gang membership among 371 parent-child dyads in a series of logistic regressions accounting for moderating influences of parent sex, child sex, parent-child sex combinations, and level of contact. Path analyses reported herein explore whether parenting behaviors mediate the relationship between parent and child gang membership among fathers and mothers, respectively. Three key findings emerge. First, intergenerational continuity in gang membership exists between mothers and daughters and, conditional on contact, between fathers and sons. Second, maltreatment mediates some of this relationship among father-son dyads. Third, no pathways to daughter gang membership were identified among mothers. In sum, this study provides evidence of intergenerational continuity in gang membership and further highlights the importance of parent sex, child sex, and level of contact in intergenerational research. Future research should further explore the causal pathways between parent and child gang membership.