Developmental Pathways from Genetic,Prenatal, Parenting and Emotional/Behavioral Risk to Cortisol Reactivity and Adolescent Substance Use: A TRAILS Study

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Cortisol reactivity is a frequently studied biomarker of substance use, though infrequently examined in adolescence. However, past research provides evidence that...     

Differentiating Peer Contexts and Risk for Adolescent Substance Use

The peer context is perhaps the most salient, robust predictor of an adolescent's substance use. However, in previous studies, the peer context is often poorly defined. The current study examined 3 models to understand how substance use within best friendships, peer cliques, and social crowds predicts adolescents' substance involvement. A sample of 377 high school juniors and seniors completed surveys assessing substance use and peer relationships. Results suggest that each of these 3 dimensions of the peer context uniquely predict adolescent substance use. Moreover, these peer contexts interacted in the prediction of adolescents' substance use such that adolescents who were more highly embedded in substance-using peer contexts showed greater risk for substance use whereas adolescents with substance-using best friends showed a reduced risk for substance use if they had other close friends who were less involved with substances.     

Adolescent Risk: The Co-Occurrence of Illness,Suicidality, and Substance Use

Illness is rarely considered a “risk factor” in adolescence. This study tests illness, suicidality and substance use as outcome measures in a path analysis of 1028 Swiss adolescents in secondary prevention programs. The model showed that negative mood (depression and anxiety) predicted two paths. One path led from negative mood to suicidality and from there to substance use. The other path led directly from negative mood to illness. Traditional protective factors (good relationships, secure identity) protected against the negative mood-suicide-substance path, but not against the negative mood-illness path. Gebhard Hüsler, psychologist and psychotherapist, Director of the Centre for Rehabilitation and Health Psychology Research, University of Fribourg, rte Englisberg 7, CH 1763 Granges-Paccot, Switzerland. Ronny Blakeney is a senior researcher at University of Fribourg, Departement Erziehungswissenschaften, University of Fribourg, rue de Faucigny 2, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Her major research interests are developmental approaches to the sociomoral challenges of adolescents. Egon Werlen is a junior researcher at Center of Rehabilitation and Health Psychology Research, rte Englisberg 7, CH 1763 Granges-Paccot, Switzerland. His major interests are the course of psychological well being, psychological processes in chronic diseases, and methodological issues.     

Protective Families in High- and Low-risk Environments: Implications for Adolescent Substance Use

This study used data from a sample of 6th to 12th grade students (N = 48,641, 51% female), nested in 192 schools, to determine if the influence of family-based protective factors varied across different school contexts. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to examine the effects of individual-level family protective factors, relative to school-level aggregates of the same factors, on recent (past 30 days) use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Cross-level interactions indicated that the effect of the student’s level of family protection, relative to other students in their school, differed depending on the aggregated school level of family protection. The results suggested that the benefit of belonging to a well-functioning family was more influential for students attending schools characterized by higher-than-average aggregated levels of protection compared to students attending schools of lower-than-average protection. Thus, family-level factors offered less protection for students in relatively high-risk school contexts. These results were consistent with a protective–reactive interaction and suggest that a thorough understanding of adolescent substance use must consider the complex interplay among adolescents, their families, and their social environments.     

Risky Interactions: Relational and Developmental Moderators of Substance Use and Dating Aggression

Physical dating aggression is a prevalent and costly public health concern. A theoretical moderator model of substance use and dating aggression posits that associations between them are moderated by relational risk factors. To test these theoretical expectations, the current study examined seven waves of longitudinal data on a community-based sample of 100 male and 100 female participants in a Western U.S. city (M age Wave 1?=?15.83; 69.5% White non-Hispanic, 12.5% Hispanic, 11.5% African Americans, & 12.5% Hispanics). Multilevel models examined how links between substance use and dating aggression varied by relational risk and how these patterns changed developmentally. Main effects of relational risk and substance use emerged, particularly in adolescence. In young adulthood significant three-way interactions emerged such that substance use was more strongly associated with physical aggression when conflict and jealousy were higher. Thus, relational risk factors are integral to models of dating aggression, but their role changes developmentally.

     

Linking Family Economic Pressure and Supportive Parenting to Adolescent Health Behaviors: Two Developmental Pathways Leading to Health Promoting and Health Risk Behaviors

Adolescent health behaviors, especially health risk behaviors, have previously been linked to distal (i.e., family economic pressure) and proximal (i.e., parental support) contributors. However, few studies have examined both types of contributors along with considering health promoting and health risk behaviors separately. The present study investigated the influences of family economic hardship, supportive parenting as conceptualized by self-determination theory, and individual psychosocial and behavioral characteristics (i.e., mastery and delinquency, respectively) on adolescents’ health promoting and health risk behaviors. We used structural equation modeling to analyze longitudinal data from a sample of Caucasian adolescent children and their mothers and fathers (N = 407, 54 % female) to examine direct and indirect effects, as well as gender symmetry and asymmetry. Findings suggest that family economic pressure contributed to adolescent mastery and delinquency through supportive parenting. Further, supportive parenting indirectly affected adolescent health risk behaviors only through delinquency, whereas supportive parenting indirectly influenced health promoting behaviors only through mastery, suggesting different developmental pathways for adolescent health risk and health promoting behaviors. Testing for gender symmetry of the full model showed that maternal and paternal parenting contributed to females’ health risk behaviors directly, while maternal and paternal parenting contributed to males’ health risk behaviors through delinquency. Gender symmetry was largely unsupported. The study highlights key direct and indirect pathways to adolescent health risk and health promoting behaviors within a family stress model and self-determination theory framework, and also highlights important gender differences in these developmental pathways.     

Adolescent Alcohol Beverage Type Choices Reflect Their Substance Use Patterns and Attitudes

Alcoholic beverage type choices were studied in relation to adolescents' substance use patterns and attitudes towards substance use, utilizing the national 1999 Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey data (N = 4943) collected among Finns aged 14 and 16 years by mail. Frequencies of drinking, drunkenness and smoking, and chewing tobacco use as well as attitudes towards substance use and exposure to other drugs were all strongly related to beverage type choices. The amount of alcohol consumed was associated with the beverage choice. The relationships between beverage choices and substance use patterns were partly mediated through amounts drunk. Beverage type choices seemed to reflect substance use patterns and attitudes more generally. Wine and cider appeared beverages related to moderation and control in relation to substance use, but beer drinking may be interpreted as a sign of initiation into a substance use pattern favoring smoking and heavier use of alcohol and other drugs.     

Cyber Bullying and Physical Bullying in Adolescent Suicide: The Role of Violent Behavior and Substance Use

The impact of bullying in all forms on the mental health and safety of adolescents is of particular interest, especially in the wake of new methods of bullying that victimize youths through technology. The current study examined the relationship between victimization from both physical and cyber bullying and adolescent suicidal behavior. Violent behavior, substance use, and unsafe sexual behavior were tested as mediators between two forms of bullying, cyber and physical, and suicidal behavior. Data were taken from a large risk-behavior screening study with a sample of 4,693 public high school students (mean age = 16.11, 47 % female). The study’s findings showed that both physical bullying and cyber bullying associated with substance use, violent behavior, unsafe sexual behavior, and suicidal behavior. Substance use, violent behavior, and unsafe sexual behavior also all associated with suicidal behavior. Substance use and violent behavior partially mediated the relationship between both forms of bullying and suicidal behavior. The comparable amount of variance in suicidal behavior accounted for by both cyber bullying and physical bullying underscores the important of further cyber bullying research. The direct association of each risk behavior with suicidal behavior also underscores the importance of reducing risk behaviors. Moreover, the role of violence and substance use as mediating behaviors offers an explanation of how risk behaviors can increase an adolescent’s likelihood of suicidal behavior through habituation to physical pain and psychological anxiety.     

Other-Sex Friendships as a Mediator Between Parental Monitoring and Substance Use in Girls and Boys

Previous research examining relationships between parental monitoring, friendship networks, and substance use did not take into account the gender of both the adolescent and the friends. The goal of this study was to test a mediation model in which having other-sex friends during mid-adolescence mediates the relationships between parental monitoring in early adolescence and substance use during late adolescence. We hypothesized that mediation would be observed for girls but not for boys. A sample of 333 adolescents (60?% girls) was surveyed yearly from ages 12 to 19. The findings provided support for an indirect relationship (mediation via other-sex friendships) between early adolescent parental monitoring and late adolescent alcohol use among girls only. That is, for girls, higher levels of parental monitoring lead to fewer other-sex friendships, which then lead to lower levels of subsequent alcohol use. For drug use, the findings provided support for a direct relationship between early adolescent parental monitoring and late adolescent drug use for both boys and girls. Thus, parents seem to have a protective effect on their daughters’ later use of alcohol by limiting inclusion of male friends in their networks.     

Parent and Peer Pathways to Adolescent Delinquency: Variations by Ethnicity and Neighborhood Context

Effects of ethnicity and neighborhood quality often are confounded in research on adolescent delinquent behavior. This study examined the pathways to delinquency among 2,277 African American and 5,973 European American youth residing in high-risk and low-risk neighborhoods. Using data from a national study of youth, a meditational model was tested in which parenting practices (parental control and maternal support) were hypothesized to influence adolescents' participation in delinquent behavior through their affiliation with deviant peers. The relationships of family and neighborhood risk to parenting practices and deviant peer affiliation were also examined. Results of multi-group structural equation models provided support for the core meditational model in both ethnic groups, as well as evidence of a direct effect of maternal support on delinquency. When a similar model was tested within each ethnic group to compare youths residing in high-risk and low-risk neighborhoods, few neighborhood differences were found. The results indicate that, for both African American and European American youth, low parental control influences delinquency indirectly through its effect on deviant peer affiliation, whereas maternal support has both direct and indirect effects. However, the contextual factors influencing parenting practices and deviant peer affiliation appear to vary somewhat across ethnic groups. Overall the present study highlights the need to look at the joint influence of neighborhood context and ethnicity on adolescent problem behavior.     

Contextual Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Adolescent Suicide Attempts: A Multilevel Investigation

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Multilevel research on whether and how contextual socioeconomic disadvantage affects adolescent suicidal behaviors is scarce. Using data from the first two waves...     

Contextual Socioeconomic Status and Mental Health Counseling Use Among US Adolescents with Depression

Most adolescents with depressive disorders do not receive any mental health services, even though effective treatments exist. Although research has examined numerous individual-level factors associated with mental health service use among depressed adolescents, less is known about the role of contextual factors. This study examines the relationship between contextual-level socioeconomic status (SES) and clinic-based mental health counseling use among US adolescents with high depressive symptoms in urban and suburban areas. Data from the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 1,133; 59 % female) were analyzed using multilevel logistic models in which adolescents were nested within counties. After controlling for individual-level predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics, as well as county racial/ethnic composition, county SES was positively associated with clinic-based counseling use among depressed youth. A one standard deviation increase in the county affluence index was associated with 43 % greater odds of receiving any clinical counseling services. Furthermore, the positive relationship between county affluence and clinical counseling use was no longer significant after controlling for the county supply of mental health specialist physicians. The results indicate that county residential context is a key correlate of mental health service use among depressed adolescents, such that those who live in lower SES counties with fewer mental health specialists are less likely to receive treatment.     

Multidimensional Impulsive Personality Traits Mediate the Effect of Parent Substance Use Disorder on Adolescent Alcohol and Cannabis Use

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Theory suggests that behavioral undercontrol mediates the effect of parental substance disorder on offspring substance use, but no studies have tested...     

Perceived Parental Monitoring,Adolescent Disclosure,and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Examination

Parental monitoring has long been stressed as an important parenting practice in reducing adolescents’ susceptibility to depressive symptoms. Reviews have revealed, however, that measures of monitoring have been confounded with parental knowledge, and that the role of adolescent disclosure has been neglected. In the present study, adolescents (N = 2,941; 51.3% female) were surveyed each year from grades 9–12. To disentangle parenting factors, bidirectional associations among parental knowledge, adolescent disclosure, and parental monitoring (i.e., solicitation and control) were examined. Higher parental knowledge was associated with lower adolescent depressive symptoms over time. Adolescent disclosure and parental control also predicted lower adolescent depressive symptoms indirectly through knowledge. Conversely, higher adolescent depressive symptoms predicted lower parental knowledge, adolescent disclosure, and parental solicitation over time, highlighting the bidirectional nature of associations among parenting factors and adolescent depressive symptoms. Importantly, these effects were invariant across gender and grade, suggesting that interventions can be broadly based.     

Testing a Model of Universal Prevention Effects on Adolescent Relationships and Marijuana Use as Pathways to Young Adult Outcomes

There are several interrelated knowledge gaps in the literature on skills-building interventions for middle schoolers designed to prevent initiation of substance use, all of which concern the limited study of the adolescent pathways of those intervention effects on distal young adult outcomes. Among the most important yet understudied pathways of influence on long-term effects are positive youth relationship outcomes of middle-school interventions. Other influential pathways for long-term effects are reductions in adolescent substance misuse, particularly marijuana use, considering the long-term consequences of early marijuana initiation. To address these knowledge gaps, data from a randomized controlled trial were used to test a longitudinal, developmental model positing pathways of intervention effects on age 21 illicit drug use and positive relationship affect, via earlier effects on adolescent relationships and marijuana use. Sixth-graders and their families enrolled in 22 Iowa schools were randomly assigned to the Iowa Strengthening Families Program or a control group (N?=?446). The average age of students at baseline was 11.3 years (10–13 year age range); 48% were male and 98% were Caucasian, reflective of the demographics in the participating rural Midwest communities. Measures included middle-school relationships (parents, peers, school), high school marijuana use, plus age 21 illicit drug use and relationship affect (parents, work, school), 10 years past intervention implementation. As expected, intervention effects on young adult variables were indirect, through effects on adolescent outcomes, with higher-risk participants showing greater intervention impact. The findings suggest preventive interventions with young adolescents have potential to demonstrate effects into young adulthood.