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. 2021 Aug:119:106888.
doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106888. Epub 2021 Mar 4.

All in the family: parental substance misuse, harsh parenting, and youth substance misuse among juvenile justice-involved youth

Emily Adlin Bosk  1 , Wen Li Anthony  2 , Johanna Bailey Folk  3 , Abigail Williams-Butler  2
Affiliations

All in the family: parental substance misuse, harsh parenting, and youth substance misuse among juvenile justice-involved youth

Emily Adlin Bosk et al. Addict Behav. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: Research consistently connects parental and youth substance misuse, yet less is known about the mechanisms driving this association among justice-involved youth. We examine whether harsh parenting is an explanatory mechanism for the association between parental substance use and parental mental health and youth substance use disorder in a sample of justice-involved youth.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a large-scale longitudinal survey of mental health and substance misuse in a representative sample of youth in juvenile detention. Harsh parenting, child maltreatment, youth alcohol and cannabis use disorder, and parental substance misuse and mental health were assessed among 1,825 detained youth (35.95% female) at baseline, three-year follow-up, and four-year follow-up.

Results: At baseline, over 80% of youth used alcohol and/or cannabis; at the four-year follow-up, 16.35% and 19.69% of the youth were diagnosed with alcohol and cannabis use disorder, respectively. More than 20% of youth reported their parent misused substances and 6.11% reported a parent had a severe mental health need. Black youth experienced significantly fewer types of harsh parenting compared to White youth. Multivariate path analyses revealed harsh parenting mediated the association between parental substance misuse and mental health on youth alcohol and cannabis use disorder. Harsh parenting that does not rise to the level of child maltreatment mediated the association between parental substance misuse and mental health on youth alcohol use disorder; in contrast, child maltreatment did not mediate these associations. Multigroup analyses revealed the effect of harsh parenting on youth alcohol and cannabis use disorder did not vary across sex or race-ethnic subgroups.

Conclusions: Harsh parenting represents one mechanism for the intergenerational continuity of alcohol and cannabis misuse and should be regularly assessed for and addressed in juvenile justice settings.

Keywords: Alcohol use disorder; Cannabis use disorder; Harsh parenting; Juvenile justice; Parental mental health; Parental substance use.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Conceptual models illustrating the pathways among parental substance misuse and severe mental health needs, harsh parenting (child maltreatment vs. harsh parenting that does not rise to the level of maltreatment), and youth alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) over time.
Figure 2a.
Figure 2a.
Path analysis examining the pathways among parental substance misuse and severe mental health needs, harsh parenting, and youth alcohol/cannabis use disorders. B = unstandardized path coefficient. OR = Odds Ratio. Nonsignificant paths are presented using dotted lines. Youth’s age, gender, and racial/ethnicity were used as covariates, but not presented in the figure. Covariances among independent variables were modeled and nonsignificant covariances were removed from the model. See Table 2a for mediational paths and 95% CI for all paths.
Figure 2-b.
Figure 2-b.
Path analysis examining the pathways among parental substance misuse and severe mental health needs, harsh parenting distinguished from child maltreatment, and youth alcohol/cannabis use disorders. B = unstandardized path coefficient. OR = Odds Ratio. Nonsignificant paths are presented using dotted lines. Youth’s age, gender, and racial/ethnicity were used as covariates, but not presented in the figure. Covariances among independent variables were modeled and nonsignificant covariances were removed from the model. See Table 2b for mediational paths and 95% CI for all paths.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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