309517
Parental Expectations Affect Children's Marijuana Initiation or Resistance
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Methods: This research investigated inconsistencies between parents’ estimates and their children’s reports of marijuana use in the first year of a nationally representative panel survey, and children’s subsequent usage one year later (N = 3131).
Results: Marijuana-abstinent adolescents in the first year (T1) of the survey were significantly more likely to initiate use over the next year if they were characterized by parents as users at T1; conversely, adolescent marijuana users at T1 were significantly less likely to continue usage in the second year if they were labeled by parents as abstinent at T1 (both p < .001). Odds that abstinent children whose parents believed they used marijuana would initiate use a year later (T2) were 4.4 times greater than those of abstinent respondents whose parents judged them abstinent. Odds of self-reported users quitting by T2 were 2.7 greater if parents believed they had not used at T1.
Conclusions: Parental expectancies were powerfully associated with children's drug initiation/cessation. Findings suggests prevention efforts pay special attention to parent-child communication, and the potential effects of improper expectations.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsAdministration, management, leadership
Advocacy for health and health education
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Define self-fulfilling prophecy, and its relevance to adolescent drug prevention.
Identify parent expectancy behaviors and their association with adolescents’substance misuse or avoidance.
Discuss the relevance of self-fulfilling prophecies to public health.
Keyword(s): Drug Abuse Prevention and Safety, Adolescents
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am ABD in psychology at Claremont Graduate University. I have collaborated on this research with my advisor, who also is listed as an author on this presentation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.