Intergenerational congruence in adolescent onset of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use.

Abstract

We examined alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana (ATM) use onset across early to late adolescence in a sample of fathers and their offspring. We tested a theory of developmental congruence in polysubstance use, or the extent to which fathers’ ATM use onset in early adolescence increased risk for earlier ATM onset by their offspring. Average rates of adolescent ATM use onset were also compared across generations, which may reflect intergenerational discontinuity and secular trends. Children (n = 223, 44% boys) and their fathers (n = 113; originally recruited as boys at neighborhood risk for delinquency) contributed repeated prospective self-reports of their ATM use across adolescence (as late as age 18 years). Mothers’ ATM use (retrospective) through age 18 years was available for 205 children. Data were analyzed using discrete-time survival mixture analysis. Compared with their fathers, boys and girls showed later onset for tobacco use, and girls showed later onset alcohol use. Developmental congruence was partially supported: Children showed earlier ATM use onset if their fathers were assigned to the early adolescent polysubstance use onset class, compared to the late-adolescent predominantly alcohol and tobacco onset class; mothers’ ATM use in adolescence attenuated this effect. Consistent with national secular trends, rates of adolescent onset tobacco and alcohol use declined across generations, whereas marijuana use onset did not. However, there was intergenerational transmission of risk for early polysubstance use onset. Prevention that delays early substance use may have early life span effects as well as transgenerational implications.

Does It Run in the Family? Intergenerational Transmission of Household Dysfunctions

“…Household substance abuse predicted drugs consumption (but not alcohol consumption), supporting the intergenerational transmission found in previous studies in mainly English-speaking countries (Kerr et al, 2020;Langevin et al, 2019). In addition, substance abuse in the household also predicted deviant behavior in later development, as reported in other studies (Edwards et al, 2001;Muniz et al, 2019).…”

“…In contrast to other family dysfunctions, studies have mainly yielded mixed results regarding household substance abuse and intergenerational transmission (Langevin et al, 2019). The studies showing a positive link between the two variables showed that children whose parents consume illegal substances were more likely to also use drugs (Augustyn et al, 2020;Kerr et al, 2020). In some studies, this negative effect was even present across three generations (Neppl et al, 2020;Tiberio et al, 2020).…”

Understanding the intergenerational transmission of substance use and problem behavior: Implications for future research and preventive interventions.

“…First, we need better understanding of historic trends in use, what is contributing to these trends, and how those trends might impact future generations. As noted by Kerr et al (2020), we've observed a historic decrease in substance use among high school students since 1979 when substance use peaked (30-day alcohol and marijuana use for 12th graders). For example, past-30-day use of alcohol by 12th graders dropped from 71% in 1979 to 30% in 2018, a 60% decrease; likewise, we have observed a steep decline in binge drinking in the past 2 weeks from 41% to 17% (a 60% decrease).…”

“…In comparison, children of chronic users were nearly 4.5 times as likely to use marijuana and 2.75 times as likely to use alcohol as children of nonusers. Kerr et al (2020) examined intergenerational associations in polysubstance use, grounding their work in developmental congruence theory. They found that children showed earlier alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use onset if their fathers were early adolescent polysubstance users, compared to the late-adolescent primarily alcohol and tobacco users; mothers' alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use in adolescence attenuated this effect.…”

“…They also collected strong measures of developmental covariates; for example, studies considered contextual factors such as neighborhood and sociodemographic status and family factors such as family bonding and family conflicts (Epstein, Bailey, Furlong, Steeger, & Hill, 2020), parenting styles (Neppl, Diggs, & Cleveland, 2020), and video observations of family interactions (Neppl et al, 2020). Finally, all studies used sophisticated analytic methods including group-based trajectory modeling (Bears Augustyn, Loughran, Larroulet, Fulco, & Henry, 2020), discrete-time survival analysis (Kerr, Tiberio, Capaldi, & Owen, 2020; Tiberio et al, 2020), multilevel modeling (Epstein et al, 2020; Rothenberg et al, 2020), and structural equation modeling (Neppl et al, 2020).…”