Peer Deviance, Adolescent Substance Use and The Moderating Role of Parental Monitoring

Keywords

Adolescent substance use, peer deviance, parental monitoring

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Social Sciences/Humanities

Is this submission part of ICaP/PW (Introductory Composition at Purdue/Professional Writing)?

No

Abstract

Low parental monitoring (Barnes et al., 2006; Kiesner et al., 2010) and associating with deviant peers (Bahr et al., 2005; Barnes et al., 2006) has been linked to adolescents’ substance use. Studies examining parenting and peers together typically assess whether low monitoring has an effect on substance use through increasing youths’ ability to engage with deviant peers (Dishion et al., 2004; Pires & Jenkins, 2007). Fewer studies have investigated how these two factors interact to influence adolescent substance use, but suggest that the effect of peer deviance is stronger for youth experiencing less monitoring (Kiesner et al., 2010). The current study extends this work by examining mothers and fathers and older and younger siblings separately. We hypothesized that peer deviance would be more strongly associated with adolescent substance use when parental monitoring is low. Utilizing data from 395 families (father, mother, older sibling and younger sibling) from the US-based Nonshared Environmental in Adolescent Development study (NEAD; Neiderhiser et al., 2007), we ran a series of hierarchical regressions testing interactions of parental monitoring and peer deviance predicting adolescent substance use. For younger siblings, the effect of peer deviance was strongest when maternal monitoring was low (β = .07, p = .036). However, contrary to our hypothesis, for older siblings, the effect of peer deviance was strongest when paternal monitoring was high (β = -.13, p = .001). Results indicate that for younger siblings with highly deviant peers, maternal monitoring plays a protective role, but for older siblings monitoring may be too restrictive and exacerbate risk associated with deviant peers.

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Peer Deviance, Adolescent Substance Use and The Moderating Role of Parental Monitoring

Low parental monitoring (Barnes et al., 2006; Kiesner et al., 2010) and associating with deviant peers (Bahr et al., 2005; Barnes et al., 2006) has been linked to adolescents’ substance use. Studies examining parenting and peers together typically assess whether low monitoring has an effect on substance use through increasing youths’ ability to engage with deviant peers (Dishion et al., 2004; Pires & Jenkins, 2007). Fewer studies have investigated how these two factors interact to influence adolescent substance use, but suggest that the effect of peer deviance is stronger for youth experiencing less monitoring (Kiesner et al., 2010). The current study extends this work by examining mothers and fathers and older and younger siblings separately. We hypothesized that peer deviance would be more strongly associated with adolescent substance use when parental monitoring is low. Utilizing data from 395 families (father, mother, older sibling and younger sibling) from the US-based Nonshared Environmental in Adolescent Development study (NEAD; Neiderhiser et al., 2007), we ran a series of hierarchical regressions testing interactions of parental monitoring and peer deviance predicting adolescent substance use. For younger siblings, the effect of peer deviance was strongest when maternal monitoring was low (β = .07, p = .036). However, contrary to our hypothesis, for older siblings, the effect of peer deviance was strongest when paternal monitoring was high (β = -.13, p = .001). Results indicate that for younger siblings with highly deviant peers, maternal monitoring plays a protective role, but for older siblings monitoring may be too restrictive and exacerbate risk associated with deviant peers.