Youths’ Substance Use and Changes in Parental Knowledge-Related Behaviors During Middle School: A Person-Oriented Approach

Abstract

Parental knowledge is a key protective factor for youths’ risky behavior. Little is known about how longitudinal combinations of knowledge-related behaviors are associated with youths’ substance use. This longitudinal study uses Latent Transition Analysis to identify latent patterns of parental knowledge-related behaviors occurring in mother-youth dyads during middle school and to investigate how changes in knowledge-related patterns are associated with youths’ substance use in Grade 6 and the initiation of substance use from Grade 6 to 8. Using a sample of 536 rural dyads (53% female, 84% White), we assessed mother and youths’ reports of parental knowledge, active parental monitoring efforts, youth disclosure, and parent-youth communication to identify six latent patterns of knowledge-related behaviors: High Monitors, Low Monitors, Communication-Focused, Supervision-Focused, Maternal Over-Estimators, and Youth Over-Estimators. Fifty percent or more of dyads in the High Monitors, Communication-Focused and Youth Over-Estimators were in the same status in both 6th and 8th grade: 98% of Low Monitors in Grade 6 were also in this status in Grade 8. The initiation of alcohol, smoking, and marijuana was associated significantly with transitions between patterns of knowledge-related behaviors. The initiation of alcohol and smoking were associated with increased odds of transitions into the Low Monitors from the Communication-Focused, Supervision-Focused, and Maternal Over-Estimators. However, the initiation of substance use was associated with decreased odds of transitions from the High Monitors to the Low Monitors and with increased odds of transitions from High Monitors to Supervision-Focused. The discussion focuses on the value of using a person-oriented dyadic approach with multiple reporters to study changes in knowledge-related behaviors over the middle school period.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Discrepancies in Adolescent–Parent Perceptions of the Family and Adolescent Adjustment

“…For example, in adolescent mental health assessments, we have found that when two parents (i.e., informants who observe adolescents in the same context) converge on reports of relatively high adolescent mental health concerns, the adolescent both displays greater hostility within observed family interactions, and self-reports greater mental health concerns, relative to adolescents whose parents do not converge in their reports about adolescent mental health (De Los Reyes et al 2016a). Consistent with this work in mental health, in recent developmental work, adolescentparent dyads that converge on relatively low levels of parental knowledge have adolescents who are at particularly high risk for developing substance use (e.g., Lippold et al 2013Lippold et al , 2014. Consequently, sometimes convergence between reports may serve as a marker for factors that pose risk for the development of adolescent maladjustment (Fig.…”

“…As mentioned previously, prior work points to substantial dyad-level variations in magnitudes of convergence, including informant dyads who converge quite highly in reports of psychological phenomena (e.g., De Los Reyes et al 2009, 2013a, 2016aLippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2013Lippold et al , 2014. What might convergence between these reports reflect?…”

“…In fact, within samples of adolescent-parent dyads, some provide reports that converge quite highly with each other whereas other dyads do not (e.g., De Los Reyes et al 2010;Lippold et al 2013). Further, among those adolescent-parent dyads who evidence divergence between their reports, sometimes it is because the parent views family functioning more favorably than the adolescent, and sometimes the reverse is the case and the adolescent views the family more favorably than the parent (e.g., Lippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2014Yaban et al 2014).…”

“…Other approaches possess similar capabilities and have been successfully implemented in the study of informant discrepancies. These include metaanalysis of cross-informant correspondence (e.g., Achenbach et al 1987;De Los Reyes et al 2015b), direct assessment of discrepant views (i.e., via structured interview: De Los Reyes et al 2012, 2013d, nested repeated measures analytic models (e.g., generalized estimating equations; Alfano et al 2015;Augenstein et al 2016;De Los Reyes et al 2013b); and person-centered models (e.g., latent class analysis; De Los Reyes et al 2009, 2011, 2016a, 2013aLippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2013Lippold et al , 2014. In line with this recent work, a key aim of this Special Issue is to report recent work on discrepancies between adolescents' and parents' reports of family functioning, using these emerging measurement and analytic models.…”

“…For instance, as we discuss below, in some cases convergence between reports may reflect the presence of family environment factors that either protect against or pose risk for the development of poor psychosocial outcomes. We focus on adolescent development and the adolescent-parent relationship, in light of the empirical support for focusing on these domains (e.g., Laird and De Los Reyes 2013;Lippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2013Lippold et al , 2014. That being said, other domains may also be relevant to understanding patterns of convergence and/or divergence between adolescents' and parents' reports about the family (e.g., parents' psychosocial functioning).…”