The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

4097.0: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 - Board 5

Abstract #71088

Effect of discrepancies in youth and parent beliefs on youths' substance use

Chunki Fong, MS1, Steve Magura, PhD, CSW1, Andrew Rosenblum, PhD1, Chris Norwood, BA2, Doris Casella, MEd2, and Alexandre Laudet, PhD1. (1) Institute for Treatment and Services Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th floor, New York, NY 10010, (2) Health Force: Women and Men Against AIDS, 552 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10455

Objectives: To determine (1) the extent of agreement between high risk youths and their parents on perceptions of the quality of family environment and the youths’ peer relations; and (2) the joint effects of youth and parent perceptions of these attributes on the youths’ substance use. Study includes 85 youth-parent pairs, involving 56 parents, all in families with HIV+ adults. Parallel scales were administered to youths and parents to rate parental permissiveness, parental detachment, deviant peer networks and poor social skills. Dissimilarity score = absolute difference between parent and youth scale scores. Youth substance use index: any cigarette, alcohol or illicit drug use: 0 (no use) to 3 (used all 3). Correlations and OLS regression were conducted; statistics below are significant at p<.05, 1-tailed. Youths: mean age 11.7, 51% male, 57% African-Am., 31% Hispanic; 28% reported substance use (20% cigarette, 22% alcohol, 8% illicit drugs). Parents: mean age 40, 88% female, 89% HIV+. Pairwise comparisons of youth vs. parent perceptions - parental detachment (r=0.36), other n.s. Youth substance use vs. dissimilarity scores - parental permissiveness (r=0.27), parental detachment (r=0.20), and deviant peers (r=0.28). Four stepwise regressions were run with youth substance use as the dependent variable. Independent variables are dissimilarity scores and their component attributes. One regression showed a significant effect for the parental permissiveness dissimilarity score (b=0.18); others showed significance for youths' perceptions. Results indicate that research studies intended to explain youth substance use should incorporate parents’, not just youths’, perceptions of risk factors.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Adolescents, Risk Factors

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Adolescents: Risk of Substance Abuse Poster Session

The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA