Adolescent family predictors of substance use during early adulthood: A theoretical model

One hundred and three subjects and their mothers were assessed at three points during adolescence and young adulthood in a longitudinal examination of the predictive and mediational relationships between family variables and substance abuse. Latent variable path analysis with partial least-squares estimation procedures (LVPLS) was utilized to test a theoretical model including constructs of family structure, family environment (maternal depressive mood and interparental conflict), mother/adolescent dynamics (mother/adolescent supportive relationship and maternal control), and substance abuse (problematic alcohol use and marijunana/hard drug use). Higher levels of interparental conflict were consistently related to poorer quality of the mother/adolescent relationship and stricter maternal control. As hypothesized, family environment variables mediated the impact of family structure, and mother/adolescent dynamics variables mediated the impact of the family environment. Results revealed notable differences between the trajectories for males and females, as well as between different types of substance abuse. Implications for substance abuse prevention efforts are discussed.