Parental Knowledge is a Contextual Amplifier of Associations of Pubertal Maturation and Substance Use

Interactions Between Genetic, Prenatal Substance Use, Puberty, and Parenting are Less Important for Understanding Adolescents' Internalizing, Externalizing, and Substance Use than Developmental Cascades in Multifactorial Models

This study tested interactions among puberty-related genetic risk, prenatal substance use, harsh discipline, and pubertal timing for the severity and directionality (i.e., differentiation) of externalizing and internalizing problems and adolescent substance use. This is a companion paper to Marceau et al. (2021) which examined the same influences in developmental cascade models. Data were from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort (n = 4504 White boys, n = 4287 White girls assessed from the prenatal period through 18.5 years). We hypothesized generally that later predictors would strengthen the influence of puberty-related genetic risk, prenatal substance use exposure, and pubertal risk on psychopathology and substance use (two-way interactions), and that later predictors would strengthen the interactions of earlier influences on psychopathology and substance use (three-way interactions). Interactions were sparse. Although all fourteen interactions showed that later influences can exacerbate or trigger the effects of earlier ones, they often were not in the expected direction. The most robust moderator was parental discipline, and differing and synergistic effects of biological and socially-relevant aspects of puberty were found. In all, the influences examined here operate more robustly in developmental cascades than in interaction with each other for the development of psychopathology and transitions to substance use.

Protective Effect of Parental Monitoring on Early-to-Mid Adolescents Displaying High-Level and Increasing Aggressive Behavior

Studies that distinguish parental monitoring (parent-driven behaviors) from parental knowledge often fail to find protective effects of monitoring on adolescent behavior problems. To answer whether parental monitoring is more strongly associated with adolescent behavior problems among adolescents who may need it most, this study applied group-based trajectory modeling to change in early- to mid-adolescent aggressive behavior problems and examined associations between parental monitoring with different subgroups. Three latent groups of adolescents were found: Low Aggression, Medium-Increasing Aggression, and High-Increasing Aggression. Results show that more maternal and paternal monitoring were associated with fewer adolescent aggressive behavior problems only for adolescents in the High-Increasing Group. This result suggests that parental monitoring is a protective factor against adolescent aggressive behavior problems for subgroups of adolescents who may need it most and less impactful for other adolescents.

Developmental Cascades from Polygenic and Prenatal Substance Use to Adolescent Substance Use: Leveraging Severity and Directionality of Externalizing and Internalizing Problems to Understand Pubertal and Harsh Discipline-Related Risk

The current study leveraged the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort (n = 4504 White boys, n = 4287 White girls assessed from the prenatal period through 18.5 years of age) to test a developmental cascade from genetic and prenatal substance use through pubertal timing and parenting to the severity of (regardless of type) and directionality (i.e., differentiation) of externalizing and internalizing problems to adolescent substance use. Limited associations of early pubertal timing with substance use outcomes were only observable via symptom directionality, differently for girls and boys. For boys, more severe exposure to prenatal substance use influenced adolescent substance use progression via differentiation towards relatively more pure externalizing problems, but in girls the associations were largely direct. Severity and especially directionality (i.e., differentiation towards relatively more pure externalizing problems) were key intermediaries in developmental cascades from parental harsh discipline with substance use progressions for girls and boys.

Maternal Parenting Behaviors Amplify Environmental Influences on Developmental Trajectories of Alcohol Use During Adolescence

Compared to peer alcohol use, less is known on how parenting practices may modify genetic and environmental contributions to alcohol use longitudinally across adolescence. This study examined whether two maternal parenting behaviors, supervision and harsh parenting, may suppress or amplify genetic and environmental influences on three distinct developmental trajectories of adolescent alcohol use: normative increasing, early-onset, and low trajectories. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal study of a population-based twin sample (N = 842, 84% European descent, 52.7% female). Adolescents self-reported their past year alcohol use at ages 13, 14, 15, and 17 years, and their mothers reported their supervision and harsh parenting when twins were 13, 15, and 17 years old. Maternal supervision amplified non-shared environmental influence on the normative increasing and early-onset trajectories, whereas maternal harsh parenting amplified shared environmental influence on the early-onset trajectory and non-shared environmental influence on the low trajectory, respectively. The findings suggest maternal parenting practices as a potent developmental context that modulates the environmental influences of other proximal processes on adolescent alcohol use, and suggest that family-based parenting-focused intervention could be especially beneficial for adolescents following the early-onset trajectory.

Low Self-Esteem for Physical Appearance Mediates the Effect of Body Mass Index on Smoking Initiation Among Adolescents

Objective

Adolescence is a period during which youth may begin experimenting with substances. Youth with overweight or obesity may be at increased risk for substance use, including cigarette smoking. Understanding the associations between smoking and excess weight and the pathways associated with increased likelihood for smoking initiation is of particular importance given the increased risk for negative health outcomes associated with each.

Methods

Using longitudinal panel data from 1,023 middle school youth (baseline age M = 12.5, 52% female), we tested whether smoking initiation was concurrently and prospectively predicted by self-reported body mass index (BMI) and whether self-esteem for physical appearance (SEPA) mediated the effect of BMI on risk of early initiation.

Results

BMI predicted smoking initiation concurrently and prospectively in unadjusted models. In adjusted models, SEPA mediated the effects of BMI on smoking initiation. Bootstrapped mediation results indicated that the positive relationship between BMI and subsequent smoking initiation was significantly mediated by lower SEPA (B =.10, 95% confidence interval [0.01, 0.22]).

Conclusions

Adolescents who have overweight or obesity are more likely to feel negatively about their appearance and bodies, and this negative perception may result in experimentation with cigarettes. Cigarettes may be used by youth with overweight or obesity in an effort to manage weight, to cope with low self-esteem or for other reasons. Future research should explore the motives and psychosocial context of smoking initiation among adolescents with overweight/obesity further (e.g., with whom they first try smoking, perceived benefits of smoking).

Lability in Parent- and Child-Based Sources of Parental Monitoring Is Differentially Associated with Adolescent Substance Use

Parental knowledge about adolescents' whereabouts and activities remains one of the strongest predictors of reduced adolescent substance use. A recent study found that across middle childhood and adolescence, parental knowledge is characterized by fluctuations on a year-to-year basis, termed lability, even more-so than by linear trends, and that lability too is a predictor of adolescent substance use (Lippold et al., Dev. Psychol. 17, 274-283, 2016). The present study replicates Lippold et al. (Dev. Psychol. 17, 274-283, 2016) by quantifying developmental change and lability in parental knowledge across adolescence and examining associations with drinking, smoking, and other drug use later in adolescence, and extends the study by examining the sources of knowledge: child disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control, separately. Using a community-based sample of 1023 youth in the Northeastern region of the USA, all three sources of knowledge were characterized by developmental change and lability. In general, higher levels and steeper developmental declines in knowledge were associated with substance use outcomes. Findings for child disclosure replicated the prior findings: increased lability of child disclosure predicted substance use. Unexpectedly, decreased lability of parental solicitation and control was associated with worse substance use outcomes. Findings suggest different mechanisms by which lability in child- and parent-driven cultivation of knowledge is associated with substance use. If replicated in studies that address causality, these mechanisms could be leveraged for prevention/intervention efforts. For example, increasing the consistency of child disclosure may help prevent substance use, but teaching parents to be more responsive to time-specific challenges with adolescents may be more effective than increasing the consistency of parents' knowledge-building parenting behaviors.

Correspondence of Pubertal Neuroendocrine and Tanner Stage Changes in Boys and Associations With Substance Use

This study examined correspondence between timing (onset) and tempo (rate) of sexual maturation prospectively (average ages 11-16 years) measured by gonadal hormones and secondary sex characteristics (Tanner stage) using dual-process models, and associations of these measures with substance use (SU) involvement in boys at age 16 years (N = 534, 77.5% White/22.5% Non-White). All measures of timing were highly associated. Early Tanner stage timing often predicted slower increases in gonadal steroids, but not the reverse; patterns varied by ethnicity. Hormone and Tanner stage measures were similar earlier in development but diverged later in development. In White boys only, early timing of the pubertal rise in testosterone was associated with increased SU involvement, suggesting a physiological rather than psychosocial mechanism of association.

Disentangling the Effects of Boys' Pubertal Timing: The Importance of Social Context

Some prior studies have found that, for boys, earlier puberty is linked to higher crime and delinquency, while other studies have found that earlier puberty is associated with greater social competence and beneficial psychosocial development. The current study suggests that these seemingly contradictory results actually represent two divergent pathways by which earlier pubertal timing can affect adjustment. Which pathway boys take is highly dependent on psychosocial context. Using a sample of 310 African American boys and their primary caregivers tracked across three waves of data collection from ages 10.55-18.84 from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS), the current study utilizes Latent Moderated Structural Equation Modeling (LMS) to analyze effects of interactions between pubertal timing and social contextual factors on criminal behavior and social competence. Results suggest that criminogenic effects of early puberty are contingent on deviant peer group, poor school experience, harsh parenting, and neighborhood disorganization, whereas the association between earlier puberty and social competence is attenuated by harsh parenting. Results suggest that modeling both positive and negative development outcomes together may give a clearer picture of the developmental consequences of pubertal timing for boys. In addition, this study shows the importance of social context in shaping the meaning and consequences of biological variables like pubertal timing.

"You can't chain a dog to a porch": a multisite qualitative analysis of youth narratives of parental approaches to substance use

BACKGROUND

Reducing harms of youth substance use is a global priority, with parents identified as a key target for efforts to mitigate these harms. Much of the research informing parental responses to youth substance use are grounded in abstinence and critiqued as ineffective and unresponsive to youth contexts. Parental provision of substances, particularly alcohol, is a widely used approach, which some parents adopt in an attempt to minimize substance use harms; however, research indicates that this practice may actually increase harms. There is an absence of research exploring youth perspectives on parental approaches to substance use or the approaches youth find helpful in minimizing substance use-related harms.

METHODS

This paper draws on interviews with youth aged 13-18 (N = 89) conducted within the Researching Adolescent Distress and Resilience (RADAR) study in three communities in British Columbia, Canada. An ethnographic approach was used to explore youth perspectives on mental health and substance use within intersecting family, social, and community contexts. This analysis drew on interview data relating to youth perspectives on parental approaches to substance use. A multisite qualitative analysis (MSQA) was conducted to examine themes within each research site and between all three sites to understand how youth perceive and respond to parental approaches to substance use in different risk environment contexts.

RESULTS

Within each site, youths' experiences of and perspectives on substance use were shaped by their parents' approaches, which were in turn situated within local social, geographic, and economic community contexts. Youth descriptions of parental approaches varied by site, though across all sites, youth articulated that the most effective approaches were those that resonated with the realities of their lives. Zero-tolerance approaches were identified as unhelpful and unresponsive, while approaches that were aligned with harm reduction principles were viewed as relevant and supportive.

CONCLUSIONS

Youth perspectives illustrate that parental approaches to substance use that are grounded in harm reduction principles resonate with young people's actual experiences and can support the minimization of harms associated with substance use. Evidence-based guidance is needed that supports parents and young people in adopting more contextually responsive harm reduction approaches to youth substance use.

Group-based trajectories of parent-child communication and parental knowledge between sexual minority and heterosexual girls and their associations with substance use

INTRODUCTION

Sexual minority girls (SMGs) may be at high risk for substance use partially due to anti-gay discrimination. Low levels of parent-child communication and parental knowledge may contribute to this risk. This study seeks to identify parent-child communication and parental knowledge trajectories, determine the likelihood of SMGs following these trajectories, and describe the relationships between these trajectories, sexual orientation, and substance use.

METHODS

This is a secondary data analysis of the Pittsburgh Girls Study (N = 2450), a longitudinal study on the changes in behaviors among girls throughout childhood. We generated group trajectory models of parentchild communication and parental knowledge starting from age 12 to age 17 years. We then tested the likelihood of SMGs belonging to these group trajectories and the association between group trajectory membership and substance use at age 18 years.

RESULTS

SMGs were more likely than were heterosexual girls to follow the infrequent decreasing parent-child communication trajectory and the slowly decreasing parental knowledge trajectory and were more likely than were heterosexual girls to engage in substance use at age 18 years. Parent-child communication and parental knowledge trajectories were statistically significant mediators between sexual orientation and substance use.

CONCLUSION

Frequency of parent-child communication and levels of parental knowledge may be determinants of substance use among SMGs. These results have implications for developing substance use prevention programs among sexual minority youth targeting parent-child relationships.

Deviant Peers as a Mediator of Pubertal Timing-Substance Use Associations: The Moderating Role of Parental Knowledge

PURPOSE

Early perceived pubertal timing and faster maturation have been linked to increased risk of adolescent substance use (SU), particularly for girls, but the mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. We sought to replicate and extend findings from Westling et al. (2008) showing that peer deviance mediates the link between early puberty and SU with stronger pathways in the context of low parental knowledge of adolescents' whereabouts and activities.

METHODS

Participants (n = 1,023; 52% female, 24% nonwhite, and 12% Hispanic) were recruited through middle schools. Pubertal timing and tempo were derived from repeated measures of perceived pubertal development. Specific sources of parental knowledge included child disclosure and parental solicitation. Two measures of peer deviance (problem behaviors and SU) were obtained. The use of any substances (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and other illicit drugs) was coded from all assessments.

RESULTS

For girls, earlier pubertal timing was associated with higher likelihood of SU but only in girls who disclosed less. For boys, slower tempo predicted greater SU, equally across parental knowledge groups. Pubertal timing and tempo were generally not associated with peer deviance; however, we detected a significant indirect effect such that peer problem behavior mediated the association between girls' early pubertal timing and SU. Parental knowledge did not moderate this effect.

CONCLUSIONS

Peer deviance was not strongly supported as a mechanism underlying atypical pubertal risk for SU (supported in one of the eight models). Parental knowledge appears to serve as a contextual amplifier of pubertal risk, independent of peer influences.

Social and Individual-Level Predictors of Alcohol Use Initiation and Escalation: Replicating and Extending Tests of Differential Effects

OBJECTIVE

Although alcohol use is considered a developmental phenomenon, there is a relative dearth of studies disaggregating predictors of alcohol use initiation versus early escalation of drinking. One perspective that has emerged is that social levels of influence may be relevant for the initiation of drinking, whereas individual levels of influence may be relevant for the early escalation in level of drinking among initiators, which we refer to as the specificity hypothesis.

METHOD

A sample of alcohol-naive youth (n = 944; mean age = 12.16 years, SD = 0.96) was prospectively assessed for 3 years, spanning six waves of data collection.

RESULTS

Both social (parental conflict, perceived prevalence of peer drinking) and individual-level (higher sensation seeking) variables uniquely predicted increases in the likelihood of alcohol initiation. Likewise, both social (perceived descriptive norms of peer drinking) and individual-level (lower school grades, higher sensation seeking) variables uniquely predicted escalation in level of drinking among initiators (although only marginally for sensation seeking).

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, there was little support for the specificity hypothesis. Our findings suggest that to assume that social and individual-level processes differentially predict drinking outcomes may be a false dichotomy. Theoretical work may benefit from drawing from developmental models emphasizing the interplay between individual and environmental factors in the prediction of the early development of drinking. The emergence of drinking behaviors is likely to result from a developmental cascade of interacting variables that make the ontogeny of drinking unlikely to emerge from a single class of variables.

Interactive Effect of Parent and Adolescent Psychiatric Symptoms on Substance Use among Adolescents in Community Treatment

Both adolescent and parent psychiatric symptoms are well-established risk factors for adolescent substance use (SU), but the ways that these symptoms interact are not well understood. This study examined the interactive effects of parent and adolescent psychiatric symptoms on adolescent frequency of alcohol and marijuana use, over and above the effects of parental SU. Seventy adolescents presenting to a community mental health center (CMHC) participated. Parent and adolescent psychiatric symptoms were measured with the brief symptom inventory (BSI) and child behavior checklist (CBCL), respectively. Hierarchical regressions revealed different patterns for adolescent alcohol and marijuana use. For alcohol, the BSI parent phobic anxiety subscale predicted increased adolescent use while the parent interpersonal sensitivity subscale predicted decreased use: the effects of these parental symptoms were strongest among adolescents with higher levels of externalizing problems on the CBCL. For marijuana, the BSI parent psychoticism subscale predicted increased adolescent use, whereas paranoid ideation predicted decreased use. Results suggest that adolescent SU treatment and assessment should attend to both adolescent and parent psychiatric symptoms.