Parent–child communication and substance use among adolescents: Do father and mother communication play a different role for sons and daughters?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender-specific variations in the associations between communication with father and mother, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and marijuana use in male and female adolescents. Cross-sectional data were collected from a national sample of 1308 tenth graders who participated in the 2005/06 U.S. HBSC. Outcome variables were self-reported substances used in the past 30 days. Logistic regression analyses controlling for race/ethnicity, family structure and socioeconomic status showed that the association of mother and father communication with adolescent substance use varied by substance and gender. Among sons, father communication was protective against marijuana use and mother communication was protective against smoking. Neither father nor mother communication was protective against substance use by daughters. Research is needed to understand gender-specific differences in correlates of adolescent substance use and the implications for prevention and intervention.

Introduction

Parent–child communication is a potentially modifiable protective factor of adolescent substance use (DeVore & Ginsburg, 2005). Substantial literature indicates that greater frequency and quality of general parent–child communication are negatively associated with adolescent substance use (Kafka & London, 1991, Stoker & Swadi, 1990). For instance, Ackard, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, and Perry (2006) found that perceived difficulty talking to parents about problems is associated with increased risk of substance use in both boys and girls. Based on children's self-reports, Cohen, Richardson, and LaBree (1994) suggested that the amount of time parents spend with their children and the frequency of parent–child communication are both associated with reduced risks for tobacco onset and alcohol use in the past month. Consistent with these findings, enhancing parent–child communication is a common target in substance use interventions for adolescents (Beatty et al., 2008, Kosterman et al., 1997, Litrownik et al., 2000, Shortt et al., 2007).

Despite the well-established inverse association between parent–child communication and adolescent substance use, gender-specific differences in this relationship have received limited attention. It is important to address this gap in research because recent trend analyses suggest that the gender gap in substance use outcomes such as smoking (Erguder et al., 2006, Hammond, 2009) and alcohol use (Keyes et al., 2008, Pritchard & Cox, 2007) is narrowing in younger cohorts. Amaro, Blake, Schwartz, and Flinchbaugh (2001), for example, demonstrated the relevance of gender for substance use prevention research by reviewing gender differences in risk factors for adolescent substance use, and recommended the development of substance use interventions that target female adolescents. Similarly, Kumpfer, Smith, and Summerhays (2008) suggested that many existing substance use prevention programs are not sensitive to the specific needs of females. Thus, they recommended the development of gender-specific programs for females which focus on promoting family bonding, communication and supervision, as well as acknowledging the crucial roles of body image, depression and social assertiveness. Taken together, these findings indicate increasing recognition of the need to understand gender-specific factors associated with substance use.

Because parent–child communication is an important interpersonal construct that is reflective of the parent–child relationship, it may serve as a protective factor that is especially relevant to female adolescents (Razzino et al., 2004, Yeh et al., 2006). Choquet, Hassler, Morin, Falissard, and Chau (2008) found that parental control and parental emotional support were more strongly related to substance use outcomes in girls than in boys. Based on data from a longitudinal sample in Oregon, Tildesley and Andrews (2008) found that the effect of growth over time in parent alcohol use on growth in children's intentions to use alcohol was mediated by parental monitoring/supervision in girls only. These studies point to the importance of gender in the association between parent–child communication and adolescent substance use.

While existing research has considered how interpersonal and family factors might be associated with substance use differentially in male and female adolescents, few studies have examined whether fathers and mothers have unique influences on adolescent substance use or whether these effects are gender specific. It is known that fathers are more likely to be seen as less effective, involved and significant than mothers in the context of family relationships (Stoker & Swadi, 1990, Williams & Kelly, 2005). Moreover, mothers were found to communicate with their children more openly than fathers (Rosnati, Lafrate, & Scabini, 2007). Consistent with these findings, Ackard et al. (2006) demonstrated that more girls than boys felt unable to talk to their father about problems, whereas boys and girls felt equally comfortable talking to their mother about problems. Based on these findings, it is of interest to delineate how fathers and mothers may play different roles in the association between parent–child communication and adolescent substance use in their sons and daughters.

In the substance use literature, findings regarding gender-matching between parental variables and adolescent substance use outcomes are sparse. Ashley et al. (2008) reported that mother cigarette smoking was more strongly associated with cigarette smoking in daughters than in sons. Similarly, Patock-Peckham and Morgan-Lopez (2006) found that when the parent was the same gender as the child, permissive parenting was directly related to impulsivity, a significant mediator of parenting effects on drink control. The same authors also found that perceptions of having an authoritarian father were positively associated with higher levels of neuroticism in males only, where neuroticism was directly linked to alcohol problems and pathological reasons for drinking and indirectly linked to alcohol use (Patock-Peckham & Morgan-Lopez, 2009). However, it is unclear whether the protective effect of parent–child communication varies by the gender of the parent and that of the adolescent.

Most studies of associations between parent–child communication and substance use have focused on either cigarette smoking or alcohol drinking as adolescent substance use outcomes (e.g., Beatty, Cross, & Shaw, 2008), and few have considered marijuana use. When marijuana was included, it was often as part of an index of substance use, rather than as a separate outcome (e.g., Ackard et al., 2006). However, in one study parental influences on adolescent marijuana use were reported to be stronger than parental influences for alcohol use and similar to those for cigarette use (Choquet et al., 2008). Thus, it is of interest to include marijuana use as an outcome variable and to examine these outcome variables separately.

Few studies have used a nationally representative sample, limiting the generalizability of previous findings. For example, Pokhrel, Unger, Wagner, Ritt-Olson, and Sussman (2008) found that parental monitoring and parent–child communication were both negatively associated with cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in the past 30 days in a sample of Hispanic adolescents. However, it is unclear whether these patterns are comparable in other ethnic groups because the negative association between parenting and adolescent drug use was found to be stronger for Latino adolescents than for African and White adolescents in another study (Broman, Reckase, & Freedman-Doan, 2006). Therefore, it is also of interest to evaluate the association between parent–child communication and adolescent substance use in a nationally representative sample.

The purposes of the present study are as follows: (1) to examine the extent to which easy father communication and easy mother communication are associated with substance use in a diverse and nationally representative sample of male and female adolescents; (2) to investigate the unique associations among males and females; and (3) to evaluate whether these patterns are consistent across cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and marijuana use. Based on previous studies, we first hypothesized that easy father and mother communication are protective for adolescent substance use, especially in females. Second, we expected that the mother–daughter dyad is the most protective pair as compared to mother–son, father–daughter and father–son dyads. Third, as inferred in a previous study on parental control and adolescent substance use (Choquet et al., 2008), we predicted that the inverse relationship between parent–child communication and substance use is significant for tobacco and cannabis use but not for alcohol use. Clarifying gender-specific variations in the associations between parent–child communication and three important adolescent substance use outcomes could provide important information to guide prevention and intervention efforts, particularly among female adolescents (Schinke, Cole, & Fang 2009).