Associations between three characteristics of parent-youth relationships, youth substance use, and dating attitudes

Pathways to substance use: Examining conduct problems and parenting behaviors from preschool to adolescence

While many studies have identified risk and protective factors of substance use (SU), few have assessed the reciprocal associations of child conduct problems (CP) and parenting practices and behaviors in the prediction of SU across development. A greater understanding of how these factors relate over time is needed to improve the timing of targeted prevention efforts. This study examined how child CP, parenting behaviors, and parents' own antisocial behavior relate from preschool to adolescence and eventuate in SU. Participants included 706 youth (70.6% male; 89.7% white) enrolled in the Michigan Longitudinal Study. Data from waves 1 (ages 3-5), 2 (ages 6-8), 3 (ages 9-11), 4 (ages 12-14), and 5 (ages 15-17) were included. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) examined reciprocal associations between parenting practices, parents' antisocial behavior, and child CP over time (waves 1-4) and how these factors contribute to adolescent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use (wave 5). At the within-person level, negative parenting and parents' own antisocial behavior had a strong influence in late childhood/early adolescence. Only child CP emerged as a significant predictor of SU. Results highlight the importance of early intervention and the potential influence of parenting and child factors throughout development in the prevention of SU.

Substance use disorder is the outcome of deviant socialization: A prospective investigation spanning childhood to adulthood

OBJECTIVE

Disinhibitory behavior during childhood and adolescence has been frequently shown to amplify the risk for substance use disorder (SUD) in adulthood. This prospective study examined the hypothesis that poor communication with parents and association with deviant peers comprise an SUD-promoting environtype which catalyzes transition of disinhibitory behavior toward SUD.

METHOD

Male (N = 499) and female (N = 195) youths were tracked from 10 to 12 to 30 years of age. Path analysis evaluated the patterning of disinhibitory behavior and social environment during childhood on substance use during adolescence, and antisocial personality without co-occurring SUD in early adulthood and subsequently substance use disorder (SUD).

RESULTS

Disinhibitory behavior (SUD vulnerability) in childhood predicts antisociality without SUD (age 22) that segues to SUD (age 23-30) whereas the environtype (parents and peers) predicts substance use during adolescence which predicts antisocial personality leading to SUD. Antisociality without SUD in early adulthood mediates the association of substance use during adolescence and SUD.

CONCLUSION

Disinhibitory behavior and deviance-promoting social environment conjointly promote development of SUD via deviant socialization.

The Contribution of Parental Factors to Adolescents’ Deviant Behaviour in South Africa: Evidence from Three Rural Communities in South Africa

Challenges associated with adolescents are prevalent in South African societies. During the adolescence stage, children may become involved in deviant behaviour. Although a significant number of studies have focused on the factors that contribute to adolescents’ deviant behaviour, including parental factors, there is paucity of research specifically in rural communities. This study explores the contribution of parental factors to adolescents’ deviant behaviour in rural communities in South Africa. Guided by the qualitative approach, the present study makes use of semi-structured interviews to collect data and thematic analysis to analyse data. The parental factors identified include less parental supervision, a lack of support, an absence of parental discipline, parent’s lack of concern and the inability of parents to be role models. These factors play a role in adolescent deviant behaviour, such as crime, dropping out of school and substance abuse. Therefore, by focusing on the family, especially parental behaviour, the potential to reduce adolescent deviant behaviour becomes possible. This is important in promoting the well-being of adolescents, their families and society.

Gender Differences in the Psychosocial Determinants Underlying the Onset and Maintenance of Alcohol Use Disorder

A large number of different mechanisms have been linked to Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), including psychosocial, neurocognitive, affective, and neurobiological factors. Gender has been shown to impact the presentation and progression of AUD; yet, little work has been done to parse the different mechanisms underlying AUD within the lens of gender differences. A review of the literature on adolescence revealed that psychosocial factors, in particular lack of family social support and interactions with peers, drive the onset of alcohol use more strongly in girls relative to boys. However, research done on gender differences in disease progression in adults remains limited. Our gender-specific analysis of the mechanisms underlying AUD in adults revealed that lack of social support was causally linked to negative affect, mental health symptoms, and AUD symptom severity in women, but not men. These novel results suggest that psychosocial factors may play a gender-specific role not only in the onset of use in adolescence, but also in the maintenance of addiction in adults. If confirmed, this suggests the need for investigating gender-specific recovery trajectories. In this perspective piece, we review the literature regarding gender differences in the onset and maintenance of AUD and present original data that support unique risk factors in women.

Moderating Factors Associated With Interrupting the Transmission of Domestic Violence Among Adolescents

Exposure to child maltreatment in the family-of-origin has consistently been linked to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration in adulthood. Although the concept of a cycle of violence presumes that the transmission of violence is expressed directly across generations, some protective factors such as social support, self-esteem, and relationship quality with parents may ultimately be influential in nonviolent behavior in adult relationships. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data set, we tested protective factors to see if and to what extent they disrupted the association from early childhood maltreatment to experiencing violence later on in adult relationships. We found that there was a positive association between adolescence exposure to maltreatment and adult perpetration and victimization of IPV. Also, social support in adolescence was identified as a predictor of lower levels of violence in adult relationship. Clinical implications were discussed to help therapists intervene with adolescents in the hopes of reducing their propensity toward violent relationships in adulthood.

Romantic Relationship Characteristics and Adolescent Relationship Abuse in a Probability-Based Sample of Youth

This study examines the longitudinal association between baseline adolescent romantic relationship characteristics and later adolescent relationship abuse (ARA). Data are from the first two waves of the National Survey on Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV). Girls and boys ages 10 to 18 were recruited randomly from the children of adults participating in a larger national household probability sample panel. About three quarters of the sample identified as White, non-Hispanic. Controlling behavior by a romantic partner consistently predicted later ARA. Higher levels of controlling behavior in the relationship was associated with higher rates of sexual and/or physical ARA victimization and higher rates for similar acts of perpetration. More controlling behavior by the partner was also associated with higher rates of psychological ARA victimization (and higher rates for psychological ARA perpetration). Our results suggest that ARA prevention programs should have explicit discussions of the deleterious effects of controlling behavior with adolescents. Respondents reporting higher feelings of passionate love were also at higher risk of experiencing sexual and/or physical ARA victimization. This finding will need to be considered by clinicians and prevention specialist in their work with youth as a potential risk marker for ARA. Baseline reports of at least one form of ARA were predictive of 1-year follow-up rates of ARA in all of our models, underscoring a long line of research that past aggressive or violent behavior is one of the strongest predictors of current aggressive or violent behavior. We also observed that female respondents were twice as likely to be perpetrators of physical and/or sexual ARA as male respondents. Prevention messaging often is focused on girls as ARA victims and our results imply that messaging should also be directed toward girls as perpetrators.

Adolescent Dating Violence Prevention Program for Early Adolescents: The Me & You Randomized Controlled Trial, 2014-2015

Objectives. To test the efficacy of Me & You, a multilevel technology-enhanced adolescent dating violence (DV) intervention, in reducing DV perpetration and victimization among ethnic-minority early adolescent youths. We assessed secondary impact for specific DV types and psychosocial outcomes.Methods. We conducted a group-randomized controlled trial of 10 middle schools from a large urban school district in Southeast Texas in 2014 to 2015. We used multilevel regression modeling; the final analytic sample comprised 709 sixth-grade students followed for 1 year.Results. Among the total sample, odds of DV perpetration were lower among intervention students than among control students (adjusted odds ratio = 0.46; 95% confidence interval = 0.28, 0.74). Odds of DV victimization were not significantly different. There were significant effects on some specific DV types.Conclusions. Me & You is effective in reducing DV perpetration and decreasing some forms of DV victimization in early middle-school ethnic-minority students.

THE INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF A COMMUNITY-BASED INTERVENTION WITH MEXICAN-HERITAGE PARENTS IN BOOSTING THE EFFECTS OF A SUBSTANCE USE PREVENTION INTERVENTION WITH YOUTH

Drawing from an ecodevelopmental framework, this article examines if adding a parenting component, Families Preparing the New Generation (Familias Preparando la Nueva Generación), to an efficacious classroom-based drug abuse prevention intervention, keepin'it REAL, will boost the effects of the youth intervention in preventing substance use for middle school Mexican-heritage students. Youth attending schools in a large urban area in the Southwestern U.S. (N = 462) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: parent and youth, youth only, or control. Using ordinary least squares regression, changes in youth substance use outcomes were examined. Results indicate that youth whose parents also participated in prevention programming exhibited significantly lower use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and inhalants compared to youth who received only keepin'it REAL. These initial effects indicate that involving parents in prevention efforts can strengthen the overall efficacy of a youth prevention intervention. This article discusses specific implications for the design of prevention interventions, policy, and future research.

Influence of parent-youth relationship, parental monitoring, and parent substance use on adolescent substance use onset

The quality of parent-child relationships likely influences many decisions and behaviors made by early adolescents, including their alcohol and marijuana use. We examined how parent-youth relationship quality, parental monitoring, and parent substance use were associated with initiation of alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use by 400 adolescents by the spring of 8th grade (ages 13-14), and changes in initiation through 9th grade (assessed 3 times; fall, winter, and spring). We measured both parent and adolescent report of parent-youth relationship quality and parental monitoring, expecting that both perspectives would uniquely contribute. Discrete Time Survival models showed that youth report of both a poorer parent-youth relationship and lower parental monitoring were associated with alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use onset. Parent binge drinking also predicted youth alcohol onset and parent report of poor quality relationship predicted marijuana onset. Youth report of a poor relationship with parents was a stronger predictor for girls than boys on their alcohol use onset, and youth report of parental monitoring was more protective for girls than boys for both alcohol and marijuana use onset. Implications for preventing use of these substances during early and mid-adolescence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Parental Influences on Heavy Episodic Drinking Development in the Transition to Early Adulthood

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine how parental relationship quality (communication frequency, time spent together, and closeness) during early adulthood is related to heavy episodic drinking (HED) during this developmental period and whether effects vary according to age, youth sex, or parent sex.

METHODS

National data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Transition to Adulthood Study were analyzed. Youth participated in up to four interviews (2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011; n = 1,320-1,489) between ages 18-25 years. At each wave, respondents reported past-year HED and their communication frequency, time spent, and closeness with each parent (items combined into an index). We tested differences in parental effects by age, parent sex, and youth sex using multigroup latent curve models.

RESULTS

Paternal relationship quality was negatively associated with HED for both males and females at each age; associations did not vary by respondent age or sex (odds ratio [OR] = .73, 95% confidence interval [CI]: .63-.85). Maternal relationship quality was significantly negatively associated with HED at ages 18-19 years among both sexes equally (OR = .50, 95% CI: .41-.61). Although protective associations continued until the age of 25 years for males, they weakened and became nonsignificant at ages 20-25 years for females (OR = .87, 95% CI: .72-1.04). Findings were robust to inclusion of multiple covariates associated with both parenting and alcohol use.

CONCLUSIONS

Having close, communicative parental relationships seems protective against HED in early adulthood, although for females maternal effects appear limited to late adolescence. Programs to improve relationship quality between young adults and their parents may help curb problematic drinking during this vulnerable period.

What Would They Do? Parents' Responses to Hypothetical Adolescent Dating Violence Situations

Although adolescent dating violence (ADV) is recognized as a significant public health problem, little is known about how parents respond to it. This article analyzes exploratory, qualitative data from a public opinion survey of 529 Midwestern, U. S. parents' ideas about how they would respond to a daughter victimized by ADV. It examines differing responses between mothers and fathers across 3 vignettes. Most parents viewed the ADV as serious, meriting deeper discussions with the daughter, boyfriend, or his parents. Many planned to handle the incident by trying to end the adolescents' relationship, talking to the boyfriend, or informing the daughter about ADV. These findings can help prevention workers show how knowledge about parents' typical reactions can help parents modulate their responses to increase effective communication with adolescents.

Prevalence and Correlates of the Perpetration of Cyber Dating Abuse among Early Adolescents

Much is known about the prevalence and correlates of dating violence, especially the perpetration of physical dating violence, among older adolescents. However, relatively little is known about the prevalence and correlates of the perpetration of cyber dating abuse, particularly among early adolescents. In this study, using a predominantly ethnic-minority sample of sixth graders who reported ever having had a boyfriend/girlfriend (n = 424, 44.2 % female), almost 15 % reported perpetrating cyber dating abuse at least once during their lifetime. Furthermore, using a cross-sectional design, across multiple levels of the socio-ecological model, the individual-level factors of (a) norms for violence for boys against girls, (b) having a current boyfriend/girlfriend, and (c) participation in bullying perpetration were correlates of the perpetration of cyber dating abuse. Collectively, the findings suggest that dating violence interventions targeting these particular correlates in early adolescents are warranted. Future studies are needed to establish causation and to further investigate the relative importance of correlates of the perpetration of cyber dating abuse among early adolescents that have been reported among older adolescents.

Parenting Profiles and Adolescent Dating Relationship Abuse: Attitudes and Experiences

Parenting behaviors such as monitoring and communications are known correlates of abusive outcomes in adolescent dating relationships. This longitudinal study draws on separate parent (58 % female; 61 % White non-Hispanic, 12 % Black non-Hispanic, 7 % other non-Hispanic, and 20 % Hispanic) and youth (ages 12-18 years; 48 % female) surveys from the nationally representative Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence. Latent class analyses were applied to investigate whether there are distinguishable parenting profiles based on six measures of parent-youth relationship and interactions, with youth's attitudes about abusive dating behavior and both perpetration and victimization examined in a follow-up survey as distal outcomes (n = 1117 parent-youth dyads). A three-class model-a "Positive Parenting" class, a "Strict/Harsh Parenting" class, and a "Disengaged/Harsh Parenting" class-was selected to best represent the data. The selected latent class model was conditioned on parents' (anger trait, relationship quality, attitudes about domestic violence) and youth's (prior victimization and perpetration) covariates, controlling for parent's gender, race/ethnicity, income, marital status, and youth's age and gender. Youth in the "Positive Parenting" class were significantly less likely 1 year later to be tolerant of violence against boyfriends under any conditions as well as less likely to perpetrate adolescent relationship abuse or to be a victim of adolescent relationship abuse. Parents' anger and relationship quality and youth's prior perpetration of adolescent relationship abuse as well as gender, age, and race/ethnicity predicted class membership, informing universal prevention program and message design, as well as indicated efforts to target communications and services for parents as well as for youth.

Parent-child relationships, parental attitudes towards sex, and birth outcomes among adolescents

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To examine how parent-child relationships, parental control, and parental attitudes towards sex were related to pregnancy outcomes among adolescent mothers.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study. Parental report of relationship satisfaction, disapproval of adolescent having sex, discussion around sexual health, and sexual communication attitudes, and adolescent report of relationship satisfaction, parental control, and parental disapproval of sex were examined as predictors of self-reported birth outcomes. Weighted multivariable linear regression models were run incorporating interactions by race.

SETTING

United States.

PARTICIPANTS

632 females who participated in Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally-representative sample of students enrolled in grades 7-12 in 1994-95 and followed up in 2007-2008.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Birthweight and gestational age.

RESULTS

For Black adolescents, better parent-child relationship was associated with higher birthweight (0.14 kg, P < .05) and gestational age (0.75 weeks, P < .01), while higher parental disapproval of having sex (adjusted beta 0.15 kg, P < .05) were associated with higher birthweight. For non-Black adolescents, a moderate amount of discussion of birth control was associated with higher birthweight (0.19 kg, P < .01 and lower child-perceived parental disapproval of having sex was associated with higher birthweight (0.08 kg, P < .05) and gestational age (0.37 weeks, P < .05). Higher parental control was associated with a reduced likelihood of smoking during pregnancy and a greater likelihood of early prenatal care.

CONCLUSION

Parent-child relationships and attitudes about sex affect outcomes of pregnant adolescents.

Effect of religiosity and dysfunctional dating attitudes on youth substance use

The current investigation examined the interactive effect of dysfunctional dating attitudes and religiosity on substance use in a large sample of youth (N = 1,357) from the YouthStyles survey. Based on past research, we explored the possibility that religiosity buffered the association between dysfunctional dating attitudes and substance use. Because age was significantly associated with all study variables, we included age in our analyses. In support of our hypothesis we found an attitude by religiosity by age interaction among youth with moderate levels of dysfunctional dating attitudes. Among these youth, the buffering effect of religiosity increased with age. For youth with low and high dysfunctional dating attitudes, religiosity did not buffer the association. The results of this study are in line with past work that suggests that the association between relationship characteristics and substance use is complex. It also identifies religiosity as a protective factor for the effect of dating attitudes on substance use but suggests that these effects may be the most important for youth with moderate levels of dysfunctional dating attitudes.

Steering teens safe: a randomized trial of a parent-based intervention to improve safe teen driving

BACKGROUND

Crashes are the leading cause of death for teens, and parent-based interventions are a promising approach. We assess the effectiveness of Steering Teens Safe, a parent-focused program to increase safe teen driving.

METHODS

Steering Teens Safe aimed to improve parental communication with teens about safe driving using motivational interviewing techniques in conjunction with 19 safe driving lessons. A randomized controlled trial involved 145 parent-teen dyads (70 intervention and 75 control). Intervention parents received a 45-minute session to learn the program with four follow-up phone sessions, a DVD, and a workbook. Control parents received a standard brochure about safe driving. Scores were developed to measure teen-reported quantity and quality of parental communication about safe driving. The main outcome measure was a previously validated Risky Driving Score reported by teens. Because the Score was highly skewed, a generalized linear model based on a gamma distribution was used for analysis.

RESULTS

Intervention teens ranked their parent's success in talking about driving safety higher than control teens (p = 0.035) and reported that their parents talked about more topics (non-significant difference). The Risky Driving Score was 21% lower in intervention compared to control teens (85% CI = 0.60, 1.00). Interaction between communication quantity and the intervention was examined. Intervention teens who reported more successful communication had a 42% lower Risky Driving Score (95% CI = 0.37, 0.94) than control parents with less successful communication.

CONCLUSIONS

This program had a positive although not strong effect, and it may hold the most promise in partnership with other programs, such as Driver's Education or Graduated Driver's License policies.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01014923. Registered Nov. 16, 2009.