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Authors: Zila Sanchez (Universidade Federal de São Paulo), Hugo Cogo-Moreira (Ostfold University College)
Background: Parental influence plays a critical role in adolescent substance use. However, it remains unclear how parenting styles may moderate the intergenerational association between parental and adolescent patterns of drug consumption. This study aims to evaluate whether parenting styles buffer or intensify the association between the drug use profiles of parents and their children.
Methods: This cross-sectional analysis was nested within a type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial evaluating Prev.Action, a multicomponent, community-based prevention program targeting alcohol use among adolescents. Baseline data were collected between 2023 and 2024 from 4,280 adolescents enrolled in 207 classes across 13 public schools in four municipalities in São Paulo State, Brazil. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify independent substance use profiles of parents and adolescents, considering alcohol, binge drinking, tobacco, vaping, and marijuana use. Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) was performed to examine the transitions and associations between parental and adolescent profiles. Parenting styles were assessed using the Demandingness and Responsiveness Scales, classifying families into four parenting styles based on Maccoby and Martin’s model: authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful. Moderation analyses were conducted to test whether parenting styles influenced the impact of parental and adolescent drug use profiles’ association.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 14.7 ± 1.8 years, and 50.5% were boys. Three distinct substance use profiles were identified for both parents and adolescents: abstainers, heavy alcohol users, and polysubstance users. A strong association was found between parental and adolescent profiles, where the two most common linking probabilities are: 90.8% of being an abstainer adolescent given an abstainer's parents and 71.3% of being an abstainer adolescent given a heavy alcohol parent. However, among adolescents raised by authoritative parents, there is a reduction of the chance of being a polydrug user adolescent regardless of having polydrug (OR = 0.32; 95% CI= 0.14 to 0.72) or heavy drinker parent (OR = 0.12; 95% CI=0.04 to 0.37), having abstainers adolescents and parents as reference categories. This association between the dyads was significantly attenuated, suggesting a protective moderation effect of the authoritative style.
Implication: The findings highlight that, despite the increased risk of adolescent substance use linked to parental drug or alcohol use, this risk can be significantly reduced through the promotion of more effective and supportive parenting practices. These results emphasize the need for family-based interventions that strengthen parenting skills, especially regarding monitoring and emotional support.
| Conflict of interest | None |
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