PARENTING STYLES AND OFFSPRING’S POLYSUBSTANCE USE IN BIOLOGICAL AND ADOPTIVE FAMILIES

Abstract

From the perspective of socialization theory, one aspect of the family environment that has been hypothesized to be one of the strongest predictors of offspring’s substance use is parenting style. This study examined the associations between offspring’s perspectives of fathers’ and mothers’ parenting styles and the polysubstance use (PSU) in biological and adoptive families by youth and young adults. Long-term influences of the parenting styles of fathers and mothers were also investigated by using longitudinal data on offspring’s PSU. Results of structural equation modelling analyses showed that offspring’s time 1 PSU scores were significantly related to both positive and negative parenting styles, whereas overall time 2 PSU scores were more strongly related to offspring’s age and gender than parenting. In both time 1 and time 2 models, different paths were found to be significant for paternal and maternal parenting models. Only adopted offspring PSU scores were found to be significantly influenced by parenting of both fathers and mothers when offspring became older. These findings confirm: (a) the uniqueness and potential vulnerability of adopted offspring in relation to PSU, (b) the difference in influence for fathers’ and mothers’ parenting on offspring’s PSU, and (c) the long-term influences of parenting style on adopted offspring.