Parental Support, Mental Health, and Alcohol and Marijuana Use in National and High-Risk African-American Adolescent Samples

Conceptualizing protective family context and its effect on substance use: Comparisons across diverse ethnic-racial youth

Background: Although family behaviors are known to be important for buffering youth against substance use, research in this area often evaluates a particular type of family interaction and how it shapes adolescents' behaviors, when it is likely that youth experience the co-occurrence of multiple types of family behaviors that may be protective. Methods: The current study (N = 1716, 10th and 12th graders, 55% female) examined associations between protective family context, a latent variable comprised of five different measures of family behaviors, and past 12 months substance use: alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and e-cigarettes. Results: A multi-group measurement invariance assessment supported protective family context as a coherent latent construct with partial (metric) measurement invariance among Black, Latinx, and White youth. A multi-group path model indicated that protective family context was significantly associated with less substance use for all youth, but of varying magnitudes across ethnic-racial groups. Conclusion: These results emphasize the importance of evaluating psychometric properties of family-relevant latent variables on the basis of group membership in order to draw appropriate inferences on how such family variables relate to substance use among diverse samples.

Connections between Family Assets and Positive Youth Development: The Association between Parental Monitoring and Affection with Leisure-Time Activities and Substance Use

This study aimed to determine the associations between parental monitoring and affection and three adolescent lifestyle aspects: constructive leisure, non-constructive leisure and substance use. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four countries (Chile, Mexico, Spain and Peru). Adolescents aged 12-15 self-completed a multi-purpose questionnaire. Multiple logistic regressions were performed to analyse the association between the parental monitoring and affection variables and the outcomes in terms of the children's lifestyles. The results indicate that parental monitoring is conducive to more constructive leisure and less non-constructive leisure and seems to be conducive to the prevention of substance use. Furthermore, parental affection is conducive to constructive leisure and the prevention of substance use. The discussion focuses on the fact that the family can be a protective resource associated with positive adolescent development.

Exploring Sex Differences in the Association between Bullying Involvement and Alcohol and Marijuana Use among U.S. Adolescents in 6th to 10th Grade

Objectives: The aim of the current study was to examine whether different types of involvement in bullying, together with a set of social-ecological correlates, were associated with alcohol and marijuana use for female and male adolescents. Methods: This study utilized data derived from the U.S. division of the 2005-2006 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study, which include 7,084 U.S. 6^th-10^th graders (3,353 males and 3,731 females) in public and private schools. Results: The results showed that although some forms of involvement in bullying were associated with alcohol and marijuana use, some of these associations became non-significant when the social-ecological covariates were included in the models. The final logistic regression models revealed that being a traditional bully-victim increased the risk of alcohol use for males while being a traditional bully and cyber victim increased the risk of alcohol use for females. In addition, being a cyberbully increased the risk of marijuana use for males. While parental monitoring decreased the risk, delinquent peers increased the risk of both alcohol and marijuana use for both sexes. Parent/guardian support decreased the risk of alcohol use for females. The likelihood of alcohol use and marijuana use increased with age for both sexes, while being an African American was linked with a lower risk of alcohol and marijuana use among males. Conclusions/Importance: Our findings demonstrate the importance of examining the link between bullying involvement and substance use, together with social-ecological correlates for female and male adolescents.

The Parent-Adolescent Relationship and Risk-Taking Behaviors Among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Self-Control

The present study primarily aimed to examine whether self-control serves as a moderator in the associations between parent-adolescent relationships, including parental support and parent-adolescent conflict, and risk-taking behaviors among adolescents. The 917 Chinese adolescents whose mean age was 14.38 years (SD = 1.69) completed questionnaires effectively. The results indicated that the relationships between either parental support or parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent risk-taking behavior were moderated by self-control. Among those adolescents with lower levels of self-control, both higher levels of parent-adolescent conflict and lower levels of perceived parental support predicted more risk-taking behaviors, but their predicting roles got weakened with the increase of the level of self-control. Accordingly, good parent-adolescent relationship, particularly less parent-adolescent conflict, is critical for decreasing adolescent risk-taking. Otherwise, improving self-control is particularly helpful to those adolescents having more conflict with their parents or less parental support to decrease their risk-taking.

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.

Optimizing follow-up and study retention in the 21st century: Advances from the front line in alcohol and tobacco research

AIMS

Longitudinal studies are integral in addiction research but retention of participants over time can be challenging. While statistical algorithms for missing data have advanced, they remain less desirable than collecting actual data with high retention rates. An update to methodological primers with consideration of evolving technology and privacy concerns is needed for 21st century researchers.

METHODS

Comprehensive follow-up methodological strategies were conducted in four concurrent laboratory- and intervention-based studies across N=697 drinker and smokers enrolled in studies at the Clinical Addictions Research Laboratory at the University of Chicago. The methods of three key longitudinal research themes and their outcomes are outlined, including: a) mindset of the research team starting at study enrollment, b) modalities with a particular focus on advances in technological strategies in follow-up, and c) mitigating difficult to reach and challenging participants.

RESULTS

The techniques described herein produced follow-up rates of 95% and 99% in two laboratory-based studies with follow-ups of 1- and 6-years, respectively and 94% and 97% in two intervention studies with follow-ups of 6- and 12- months. Adapting incentive strategies more than tripled on-time follow-up, from 18% to 68% of the sample, switching to more advanced technologies decreased participant burden and time by 30% from traditional telephone interviews, and difficult-to-reach participants averaged 47 contact attempts.

CONCLUSIONS

The methods presented produced exceptional follow-up retention across four studies. The principles and methodologies discussed may be modified across a range of studies to target various sub-populations in the addiction field.

Physical Activity of Mexican-Heritage Youth During the Summer and School-Year: The Role of Parenting Strategies

Mexican-heritage youth living along the U.S.-Mexico border have higher rates of obesity than non-Hispanic Whites. Parenting strategies may influence youth physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviors (SB) mitigating these obesity rates; however, parenting strategies have not been well examined in Hispanic cultures. Therefore, we examined relationships between parenting strategies and PA and SB of Mexican-heritage youth. Mother-child dyads (n = 121 dyads) were surveyed during the summer and school-year. Quantile regression estimated relationships between parenting strategies, and PA and SB. Summer. Reinforcement was negatively associated with moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) among more active youth (β = -364.4); limit setting was negatively associated with SB among less sedentary youth (β = -23.3); and use of discipline was negatively associated with sedentary screen time in youth reporting less screen use (β = -3.2). School-year. Males reported more MVPA (773.9 min/week) than females (738.7 min/week). Reinforcement was positively associated with weekly MVPA among more active youth (β = 173.6), fewer sedentary minutes/week among all youth, and fewer sedentary screen time minutes among less sedentary youth (β = -6.4). Parenting strategies are related with PA and SB. Investigators should focus on identifying modifiable parenting strategies to address the various needs presented during summertime and school-year for Mexican-heritage youth.