Who's Keeping an Eye on the Kids? Changes in Monitoring During Emerging Adulthood

Previous research indicates that parental monitoring protects adolescents from delinquency. While, emerging adults spend increasing amounts of time outside the family setting, they often remain in or return to reside in the parental home, possibly prolonging the period of parental monitoring. We examine whether parental monitoring, differentiating between child disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control, is a protective factor for delinquency for emerging adults. We also examine whether monitoring occurs in educational settings, by the partner or in employment settings, and whether this monitoring is associated with delinquency. We use data from a longitudinal survey of 970 Dutch emerging adults (18-24 years), to examine monitoring, using instruments based on Stattin and Kerr's parental monitoring scale. Results indicate that parental monitoring is not associated with delinquency in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, we find no evidence of the protective role of monitoring in educational settings, by the partner or in employment settings. However, the negative relationship between monitoring of the self, self-control, delinquency during emerging adulthood increases in strength.

Gender-based differences in abstention and desistance from drug use among American Indian adolescents

Informed by the social control theoretical perspective, this study intends to identify the factors more likely to differentiate American Indian (AI) adolescents who never used illicit drugs (abstainers) and those who used drugs in the past but did not report recent drug usage (desisters) from their peers who reported lifetime and recent drug usage (persisters). This secondary analysis is based on data from a multi-site study conducted between 2009 and 2013. It is based on a gender-balanced sample (N = 3,380) of AI adolescents (50.50% male; Mean age = 14.75; SD = 1.69) representing the major AI languages and cultural groups in the U.S. Half of the AI adolescents reported lifetime drug use (50.40%), 37.50% never used drugs, and 12.10% stopped using drugs. When controlling for the variables included in the analysis, AI boys were significantly more likely than AI girls to desist from drug use. Both boys and girls who never used drugs tended to be younger, were less likely to have delinquent friends and a lower level of self-control, had stronger bonds to school, but lower levels of family attachment, and reported increased parental supervision. Compared to drug users, desisters associated significantly less with delinquent peers. While school attachment, self-control, and parental monitoring did not differentiate female desisters from female drug users, adolescent boys who desisted from drug use were more likely to report higher levels of school attachment and parental monitoring and their level of self-control was less likely to be low.

Polysubstance Use in Early Adulthood: Patterns and Developmental Precursors in an Urban Cohort

Polysubstance use (i.e., simultaneous or sequential use of different psychoactive substances) is associated with increases in the risk of severe health problems and social impairments. The present study leverages community-representative, long-term longitudinal data from an urban cohort to assess: (a) the prevalence and continuation of polysubstance use between adolescence and early adulthood; (b) different patterns of polysubstance use (i.e., combinations of substances) in early adulthood; and (c) childhood risk factors for polysubstance use in early adulthood. At age 20 (n = 1,180), respondents provided comprehensive self-reported information on past-year substance use, including use of legal and illicit substances (e.g., cannabinoids, stimulants, and hallucinogens), and nonmedical use of prescription drugs (e.g., opioids, tranquilizers). In adolescence (ages 13-17), limited versions of this questionnaire were administered. In childhood (ages 7-11), potential risk factors, including individual-level factors (e.g., sensation-seeking, low self-control, aggression, and internalizing symptoms) and social-environmental factors (e.g., social stressors, exposure to others' substance use), were assessed. We fitted latent class models to identify classes of participants with different substance use profiles in early adulthood. The results show that polysubstance use increased between early adolescence and early adulthood. The continuation of polysubstance use was common (stability between all adjacent assessments: odds ratio >7). At age 20, more than one-third of participants reported polysubstance use (involving illicit substances, nonmedical use of prescription drugs, and cannabidiol). Four latent classes with polysubstance use were identified: (1) broad spectrum of substances; (2) cannabis and club drugs; (3) cannabis and the nonmedical use of prescription drugs; and (4) different cannabinoids. Risk factors for any polysubstance use included childhood sensation-seeking and exposure to others' substance use; some childhood risk factors were differentially associated with the four classes (e.g., low self-control in childhood was associated with an increased likelihood of being in the broad spectrum class). The classes also differed with regard to socio-demographic factors. This study revealed that polysubstance use is a widespread and multifaceted phenomenon that typically emerges during adolescence. To facilitate the design of tailored prevention mechanisms, the heterogeneity of polysubstance use and respective socio-demographic and developmental precursors need to be considered.

Control, Peer Association, and Permissive Attitudes to Drug Use: An Integrated Model Explaining Illicit Drug Use in China

Since 2014, synthetic drugs have replaced opioids to become the most popular illicit drugs in China. Objectives: To explain illicit drug use in contemporary China, this research develops an integrative theoretical model including control theories, differential association theory, and normalization theory. Methods: The study draws on the first-hand data collected from 716 drug users in four compulsory drug detoxification institutions in China. Results: Low self-control increases drug use frequency through the heightened association with drug-use friends and more permissive attitudes to drug use simultaneously. However, family attachment indirectly influences drug use frequency via more permissive attitudes to drug use but not drug-use friends. Conclusion &contribution: The results show that the influence of self-control and family attachment is fully mediated by drug-use friends and permissive attitudes to drug use. This study provides a detailed picture of the mechanism of how self- and social control influence drug use frequency and contributes to the larger body of scholarship integrating criminological theories to understand drug use behaviors in China. The implications of the findings for scientific and effective drug treatment programs are also discussed.

The Effects of Mothers' Protective Parenting and Alcohol Use on Emerging Adults' Alcohol Use: Testing Indirect Effects Through Prototype Favorability Among African American Youth

BACKGROUND

We examined how mothers' protective parenting and alcohol use influenced changes in offspring's heavy drinking among a sample of African American youth. The conceptual model also tested indirect effects of mothers' behaviors, through changes in the youths' social images (i.e., prototypes) of heavy drinkers, derived from the prototype willingness (PW) model.

METHODS

Participants were 686 emerging adults (55% female) from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS), an ongoing prospective study of African American families. Three waves of FACHS data were used as follows: T3 during 10th grade (M age = 16.3 years), T4 shortly after high school (M age = 19.4 years), and T5 3 years later (M age = 22.1 years). Mothers' self-reports of protective parenting and alcohol use were assessed at T4. Two separate path models tested the study hypotheses. The first model specified direct and indirect effects of mothers' protective parenting and alcohol use. The second model added interaction terms between the protective parenting behaviors and mothers' alcohol use. The analyses were first conducted using the full sample and then repeated separately for female and male participants.

RESULTS

Maternal alcohol use had a positive and direct effect on offspring's alcohol use. Mothers' endorsement of alcohol-related rules inhibited normative increases in the favorability of the offspring's social image of heavy drinkers (prototype) while her warmth was positively related to these increases. Maternal alcohol use amplified the positive association between mothers' warmth and the daughters' increased drinking. For sons, maternal alcohol use increased the positive association between alcohol-related rules and increased prototype favorability.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicated clear gender differences in how mothers' behaviors influence her offspring's alcohol use during the transition to emerging adulthood. Interventions that target culturally specific risk and protective factors within the family environment are needed to reduce health disparities among this vulnerable population of youth.

Adolescent Alcohol Use: The Effects of Parental Knowledge, Peer Substance Use, and Peer Tolerance of Use

OBJECTIVE

Parents and peers exert significant influence on a young person's decision to consume alcohol. This study examines the relationship between parental monitoring and adolescent alcohol consumption and tests whether peer substance use and tolerance of use mediates the relationship between monitoring and drinking.

METHOD

Participants included 116 adolescents (53.5% female; Mage = 15.6). All participants reported drinking alcohol in the past 6 months, and 96 participants had been previously admitted to a hospital emergency department for an alcohol-related event. Mediation analyses were used to test the study hypotheses.

RESULTS

The total effect of baseline parental monitoring on 6-month alcohol use was -1.15 (p < .01), with higher monitoring related to less use. Controlling for peer use and tolerance of use, the effect of parental monitoring was reduced to .46, leaving an indirect effect of .69 (p < .01). Peer use and tolerance of use had no effect on participant alcohol use when controlling for parental monitoring.

CONCLUSIONS

Study findings extend current knowledge about the interactive effects of parental supervision and peer influence on the drinking patterns of adolescents. Results underscore the importance of addressing both parental monitoring and peer influence in interventions that target adolescent alcohol use, recognizing peer factors as a potential mechanism of the effect that parental monitoring has on adolescent drinking.

Mothers' and Fathers' Prescription Drug Misuse in Family Contexts: Implications for the Adjustment of Parents of Children With and Without Autism

Although prescription drug misuse is an identified risk factor for individuals' outcomes, less is known about its occurrence in and implications for families. To address this limitation, we examined whether mothers' and fathers' prescription drug misuse is associated with the adjustment of parents, including those with a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those without. Mothers and fathers from families with a child with ASD (n = 178) and comparison families without a child with ASD (n = 174) completed surveys of past-year prescription drug misuse and their personal and relationship adjustment. In total, 7.7% (N = 27) of mothers and 8.2% (N = 29) of fathers reported recent prescription drug misuse. There was significant interdependence between mothers' and fathers' recent prescription drug misuse in families with a child with ASD but not in comparison families. Actor-partner interdependence modeling was used to examine associations between parents' prescription drug misuse and their own and their partner's adjustment, controlling for medical use of prescription drugs and demographic covariates. Across family diagnosis statuses, mothers' prescription drug misuse predicted higher levels of their own alcohol problems, whereas fathers' prescription drug misuse related only to mothers' poorer sleep quality. Moreover, mothers' prescription drug misuse was associated with higher levels of their own depression symptoms in ASD-status (but not in comparison) families. Understanding parents' prescription drug misuse and its effects on family members is critical for informing future research and prevention and treatment strategies.

Examining the genetic and environmental influences on self-control and delinquency: results from a genetically informative analysis of sibling pairs

The Child and Young Adult Supplement of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY) has been used extensively within criminology. A significant amount of criminological research, for example, has explored various issues related to the correlates, causes, and consequences associated with levels of self-control and delinquent involvement. The overwhelming majority of these CNLSY studies, however, have not accounted for the potential effects of genetic factors on these two widely studied criminological variables and thus the findings generated from previous empirical work may be inaccurate due to genetic confounding. The current study partially addresses this possibility by analyzing a sample of kinship pairs nested within the CNLSY. Analyses of these data revealed that genetic factors accounted for between 51% and 92% of the variance in levels of self-control and between 30% and 41% of the variance in delinquency. We discuss the implications of these results for interpreting findings from the large body of existing research using the CNLSY.

Childhood economic strains in predicting substance use in emerging adulthood: mediation effects of youth self-control and parenting practices

OBJECTIVE

To examine the influence of childhood economic strains on substance use in young adulthood and to assess the mediating roles of self-control as well as positive parenting during adolescence in a nationally representative longitudinal cohort.

METHODS

The study included data from participants (n = 1,285) in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Child Development Supplement, and Transition to Adult. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the associations among risk factors during childhood and adolescence that predicted substance use in early adulthood.

RESULTS

Conditions of economic strains, especially poverty, during childhood were associated with an increased likelihood of regular smoking in adulthood, which was partially mediated by poorer self-control during adolescence.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-control is negatively affected by economic strains and serves as a mediator between poverty and risk of regular smoking. Additional research is needed to better understand how economic strains effect the development of self-control.

The importance of family factors to protect against substance use related problems among Mexican heritage and White youth

INTRODUCTION

This study examined the ability of family cohesion, parental control, and parent-child attachment to prevent adolescents with a history of drug or alcohol use from experiencing subsequent problems related to their use.

METHODS

Data came from Wave I and Wave II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and included Mexican heritage and White adolescents who reported alcohol use (n = 4894, 25% prevalence) or any other drug use (n = 2875, 14% prevalence) in their lifetime.

RESULTS

Logistic regression results indicate greater parent-child attachment predicted lower risk of experiencing drug use problems (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.77-0.98) while stronger family cohesion predicted lower odds of experiencing drug- (OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.70-0.97) or alcohol-related (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.65-0.84) problems. Parental control was also negatively associated with odds of problems related to drug use (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.86-0.99) or alcohol use (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.90-0.99). Results also indicated family cohesion was the only protective factor for Mexican heritage youth while family cohesion and parent-child attachment were protective among White youth. Parental control protected White female adolescents from drug use problems more than males. Mexican heritage male adolescents experienced more protection from drug problems compared to females.

CONCLUSION

Findings highlight the need for prevention interventions to emphasize parent-child attachment for White youth and family cohesion for both Mexican-heritage and White youth to decrease adolescent substance users' drug- and alcohol-related problems.

Prescription Drug Misuse

Shifting drug use patterns away from traditional illicit drugs (i.e., heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines) and toward prescription drug misuse among adolescents necessitates a renewed theoretical emphasis in adolescent drug use research. Given the unique processes and perspectives associated with prescription drug misuse, theoretical connections to prescription drug misuse likely show different patterns than prior research has shown with marijuana and other illicit drugs. Using data from the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the authors apply concepts of social control theory, social learning theory, and strain theory to prescription drug misuse and draw comparisons with the predictors of marijuana and other drug use. Findings indicate that social learning, social control, and strain measures exert unique and independent influences on all three categories of adolescent substance use. Despite the similar theoretical effects across categories of substance use, many notable differences in theoretical processes are evident, especially for prescription drug misuse.

Parenting factors associated with reduced adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies

OBJECTIVE

To identify parenting strategies associated with adolescent alcohol consumption that parents can use to implement new national guidelines regarding alcohol consumption by people under the age of 18.

METHODS

A systematic search of academic literature employing the PRISMA method identified 77 relevant articles. Inclusion criteria for the review were (i) longitudinal cohort studies; (ii) measurement of one or more parenting factors during adolescence or pre-adolescence (between the ages of 8 and 17) as a predictor (iii) outcome measurement of any alcohol use and/or alcohol related problems during adolescence at least one time point after the initial parenting factor was measured, and/or problem drinking in adulthood. Studies were excluded if alcohol use was combined with other substance use or problem behaviour as an outcome variable, or if different parenting factors were combined as a single predictor variable for analysis. Stouffer's method of combining p values was used to determine whether associations between variables were reliable.

RESULTS

Twelve parenting variables were investigated in these studies: parental modelling, provision of alcohol, alcohol-specific communication, disapproval of adolescent drinking, general discipline, rules about alcohol, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, family conflict, parental support, parental involvement, and general communication. We found that delayed alcohol initiation was predicted by: parental modelling, limiting availability of alcohol to the child, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, parental involvement and general communication. Reduced levels of later drinking by adolescents were predicted by: parental modelling, limiting availability of alcohol to the child, disapproval of adolescent drinking, general discipline, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, parental support and general communication.

CONCLUSIONS

A number of parenting strategies were identified that parents can use to reduce their adolescent's alcohol consumption. These could be promoted to parents to help them implement new national guidelines on alcohol use.

DRUG RISK: A CROSS-SECTIONAL EXPLORATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY-OF-ORIGIN AND CURRENT SITUATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

The main objective of this paper is to investigate potential predictors of drug risk among a community-based sample of individuals who are exposed to illicit drugs. The four domains of interest are individual socio-demographic and social-psychological attributes, current situational circumstances and family-of-origin characteristics. Interviews were conducted with 242 individuals who were recruited in Atlanta, Georgia. Initial descriptive analyses were followed by multivariate analyses. The final model predicted 60% of the variance in drug risk. Current situational circumstances were statistically significant regarding drug risk. Family-of-origin characteristics also were significant, even when entered into the predictive model after current situational circumstances. In addition to individual social-psychological characteristics such as depression and self-esteem, the impact of childhood emotional abuse is noted. The findings indicate a need for considering proximal as well as more distal influences on drug risk behavior when designing drug use prevention and intervention programs.

Maconha e contexto familiar: um estudo psicossocial entre universitários do Rio de Janeiro

O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o contexto familiar de usuários e não-usuários de maconha. Adotamos a teoria das representações sociais de Moscovici (1961/1976, 1988), além de algumas reflexões de Becker (1971) e Foucault (1977, 1994, 1997). Participaram da pesquisa sessenta universitários do Rio de Janeiro, de ambos os sexos, entre 17 e 30 anos. Utilizamos um questionário com perguntas abertas, no qual eles apresentaram seus familiares. O material obtido foi analisado em termos temáticos e estatísticos. Entre os usuários de maconha, prevaleceu a autoridade e a ênfase nos papéis sociais, sendo a interação familiar marcada pelo acento emocional e pela idealização. Entre os não-usuários a autoridade coexistiu com relações interpessoais de companheirismo e partilha, num contexto familiar em que predominaram não aspectos afetivos mas práticas de proteção e cuidados. Podemos afirmar que o papel da família na prevenção ao uso de drogas está associado à promoção da autonomia, diferenciação e garantia de um espaço próprio para o jovem.

Risky sexual behaviors, alcohol use, and drug use: a comparison of Eastern and Western European adolescents

PURPOSE

The current study examined to what extent cultural context moderated developmental processes, namely the patterns of association between low self-control, family processes and three indicators of health-compromising behaviors (risky sexual behaviors, alcohol and drug use) in two Eastern European and two Western European adolescent samples.

METHODS

School-based questionnaire data were collected from n = 7291 middle and late adolescents in Hungary, Slovenia, The Netherlands, and Switzerland. Students rated measures of self-control, family processes (closeness, support, and monitoring), and health-compromising behaviors. The data were analyzed by a series of set hierarchical regression analyses as well as follow-up z-tests for comparisons of individual regression coefficients.

RESULTS

Findings provided evidence that low self-control was positively associated with all three measures of health-compromising behaviors in a largely invariant fashion across countries. Differences were found in developmental processes, where low self-control was more weakly associated with risky sexual behaviors in samples of both Eastern European countries as compared with Western European ones, thus providing some evidence of idiosyncratic cultural norms. Results also provided evidence of mostly direct effects by family processes on measures of health-compromising behaviors. With two exceptions, no differences were observed in these effects across the four samples.

CONCLUSION

Low self-control explains variability in health-compromising behaviors, especially in alcohol and drug use. The observed differences in the link between low self-control and risky sexual behaviors may provide some evidence of distinct norms and values among Eastern European youth in comparison with Western European adolescents related to these behaviors.