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Identifying sensitive periods when changes in parenting and peer factors are associated with changes in adolescent alcohol and marijuana use

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Abstract

Purpose

There are well-established associations between parental/peer relationships and adolescent substance use, but few longitudinal studies have examined whether adolescents change their substance use in response to changes in their parents’ behavior or peer networks. We employ a within-person change approach to address two key questions: Are changes in parenting and peer factors associated with changes in adolescent marijuana and alcohol use? Are there sensitive periods when changes in parenting and peer factors are more strongly associated with changes in adolescent marijuana and alcohol use?

Methods

We analyzed longitudinal data collected annually on 503 boys, ages 13–19, recruited from Pittsburgh public schools. Questionnaires regarding parental supervision, negative parenting practices, parental stress, physical punishment, peer delinquency, and peer drug use were administered to adolescents and their caretakers. Alcohol and marijuana use were assessed by a substance use scale adapted from the National Youth Survey.

Results

Reductions in parental supervision and increases in peer drug use and peer delinquency were associated with increases in marijuana frequency, alcohol frequency, and alcohol quantity. Increases in parental stress were associated with increases in marijuana and alcohol frequency. The magnitudes of these relationships were strongest at ages 14–15 and systematically decreased across adolescence. These associations were not due to unmeasured stable confounders or measured time-varying confounders.

Conclusions

Reducing or mitigating changes in parenting and peer risk factors in early adolescence may be particularly important for preventing substance use problems as adolescents transition into young adulthood.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by National Institutes of Health grant K01DA045955 (SJP). Funding for the Pittsburgh Youth Study has been supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (ARRA R01 AA016798; R01 AA019511), National Institute of Mental Health (P30 MH079920; R01 MH73841), National Institute on Drug Abuse (P20 DA17552; R01 DA 41101), the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP 2005-JK-FX-0001; 96-MU- FX-0020), and the Department of Health of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, 722 W 168 St, Room 521, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Seth J. Prins & Sandhya Kajeepeta

  2. Oakland, USA

    Robin Pearce

  3. Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA

    Jordan Beardslee

  4. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    Dustin Pardini

  5. Department of Population Health, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Magdalena Cerdá

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  1. Seth J. Prins
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  5. Dustin Pardini
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Correspondence to Seth J. Prins.

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This secondary analysis was approved by the Columbia University Institutional Review Board. All analyses were performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Prins, S.J., Kajeepeta, S., Pearce, R. et al. Identifying sensitive periods when changes in parenting and peer factors are associated with changes in adolescent alcohol and marijuana use. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 56, 605–617 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-020-01955-0

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