Parental knowledge/monitoring and adolescent substance use: A causal relationship?

Health Psychology, Vol 42(12), Dec 2023, 913-923; doi:10.1037/hea0001245Objective: Many studies have shown that parental knowledge/monitoring is correlated with adolescent substance use, but the association may be confounded by the many preexisting differences between families with low versus high monitoring. We attempted to produce more rigorous evidence for a causal relation using a longitudinal design that took advantage of within-family fluctuations in knowledge/monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Youth (N = 8,780, age range = 10.5–15.6 years) at 21 sites across the United States completed up to seven surveys over 12 months. Youth reported on their parents’ knowledge/monitoring of their activities and their substance use in the past month. Regressions were fit to within-family changes in youth-perceived knowledge/monitoring and substance use between survey waves. By analyzing within-family changes over time, we controlled for all stable, a priori differences that exist between families with low versus high levels of youth-perceived knowledge/monitoring. Results: Youth initially denying substance use were significantly more likely to start reporting use when they experienced a decrease in the level of perceived knowledge/monitoring (relative risk [RR] = 1.18, p
Source: Health Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research