Longitudinal transmission of risk behaviors between mothers, fathers, and adolescents.

This article investigates links between parental substance use at child age 9 and children’s substance use and delinquent behaviors at age 15, and relational mediators of these associations (coparenting, parent–child closeness). Data from 2,453 mothers, fathers, and children from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (Reichman et al., 2001) were analyzed. Fathers’ drug and alcohol use at child age 9 were not directly associated with adolescent risk behaviors at age 15, but his drug use was associated with adolescent substance use indirectly via its influence on maternal coparenting and thereafter father–child closeness. Mothers’ alcohol and drug use were both directly associated with later adolescent drug use and delinquency, and indirectly with delinquency via their associations with fathers’ coparenting and thereafter mother–child closeness. Implications of the findings for intervention and prevention as well as future research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research