Associations of parenting styles with substance use in the offspring-A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Issues: Parenting styles have been suggested to predict the use of psychoactive substances in the offspring, although the size of associations might vary between cultures. The present meta-analysis tested whether parenting styles show concurrent and longitudinal associations with substance use and whether this association is moderated by study characteristics.

Approach: A systematic search in electronic data bases resulted in 184 studies that were included in multi-level meta-analysis.

Key findings: An authoritative parenting style correlated with lower substance use (r =-0.12, confidence interval [CI] -0.14 to -0.10) while the reverse was found for neglectful (r = 0.10, CI 0.08 to 0.13), permissive (r = 0.04, CI 0.01 to 0.07) and authoritarian parenting (r = 0.03, CI 0.00 to 0.05). Analysis of cross-lagged effects found only an effect of authoritative parenting on decline of substance use (r = -0.06, CI -0.12 to -0.00). The size of associations varied, in part, by levels of horizontal and vertical collectivism or individualism, assessment of three versus four parenting styles, type of substance, and use of same versus different informants for assessing parenting and substance use.

Implications: Parenting styles show small to very small associations with substance use.

Conclusions: Although parents are recommended to behave in an authoritative manner, we should have only modest expectations about the effects of parenting styles on substance use in the offspring.