Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec;34(8):830-838.
doi: 10.1037/adb0000510. Epub 2019 Sep 9.

An intergenerational investigation of the associations between parental marijuana use trajectories and child functioning

Marina Epstein  1 , Jennifer A Bailey  1 , Madeline Furlong  1 , Christine M Steeger  2 , Karl G Hill  2
Affiliations

An intergenerational investigation of the associations between parental marijuana use trajectories and child functioning

Marina Epstein et al. Psychol Addict Behav. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Diverse patterns of life-course marijuana use may have differential health impacts for the children of users. Data are drawn from an intergenerational study of 426 families that included a parent, their oldest biological child, and (where appropriate) another caregiver who were interviewed 10 times from 2002 to 2018; the current study used data from 380 families in waves 6-10. Analyses linked parent marijuana use trajectories estimated in a previous publication (Epstein et al., 2015) to child marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine use; promarijuana norms; internalizing; externalizing; attention problems; and grades using multilevel modeling among children ages 6 to 21. Four trajectories had been found in the previous study: nonuser, chronic, adolescent-limited, and late-onset. Results indicate that children of parents in the groups that initiated marijuana use in adolescence (chronic and adolescent-limited) were most likely to use substances. Children of parents in the late-onset group, where parents initiated use in young adulthood, were not at increased risk for substance use but were more likely to have attention problems and lower grades. Results held when parent current marijuana use was added to the models. Implications of this work highlight the importance of considering both current use and use history in intergenerational transmission of marijuana use, and the need to address parent use history in family based prevention. Prevention of adolescent marijuana use remains a priority. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Parent life course marijuana use trajectories. Epstein, M., Hill, K. G., Nevell, A. M., Guttmannova, K., Bailey, J. A., Abbott, R. D., Kosterman, R., & Hawkins, J. D, Trajectories of marijuana use from adolescence into adulthood: Environmental and individual correlates, Developmental Psychology, 51, 1650-1663, 2015, American Psychological Association, reprinted with permission.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Predicted probabilities of child outcomes and parent current marijuana use by parent trajectory.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Achenbach TM (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile. Burlington: University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.
    1. Andrews JA, Hops H, Ary D, Tildesley E, & Harris J (1993). Parental influence on early adolescent substance use: Specific and nonspecific effects. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 13(3), 285–310.
    1. Arria AM, Caldeira KM, Bugbee BA, Vincent KB, & O’Grady KE (2016). Marijuana use trajectories during college predict health outcomes nine years post-matriculation. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 159, 158–165. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.12.009 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bailey JA, Hill KG, Guttmannova K, Epstein M, Abbott RD, Steeger CM, & Skinner ML (2016). Associations between parental and grandparental marijuana use and child substance use norms in a prospective, three-generation study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(3), 262–268. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bailey JA, Hill KG, Oesterle S, & Hawkins JD (2006). Linking substance use and problem behavior across three generations. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(3), 263–282. - PubMed