Divorce, Remarriage, and Adolescent Substance Use: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

The combined effects of parental divorce and parental history of depression on cannabis use in young adults in France

“…This compounded stress may contribute to the use of illegal drugs as a coping mechanism during the adolescent years of the young adults in our study (the average age of parental divorce was 17 years), which then have effects on substance use that extend into adulthood (Fawzy et al, 1983;Needle et al, 1990;Regan and Beaver, 2010). A study of non-clinical depression in mothers showed that it impacted adolescent offsprings' initiation of cannabis use (Cortes et al, 2009).…”

“…In a longitudinal survey, Needle et al (1990) found that offspring of parents who were divorced reported increased rates of overall drug involvement than those whose parents were married. In France, Ledoux et al (2002) also observed that offspring of parents from non-intact homes were more likely to report higher use of cannabis compared to those who did not come from such a home.…”

“…These studies have largely focused on adolescents (Cortes et al, 2009;Hayatbakhsh et al, 2006;Ledoux et al, 2002;Needle et al, 1990;Neher and Short, 1998) compared to young adults (Leib et al, 2002;Hayatbakhsh et al, 2009). …”

“…To understand familial risk and protective factors associated with cannabis use, a number of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies have examined parental marital status (Amato and Keith, 1991;Hayatbakhsh et al, 2006;Ledoux et al, 2002;Needle et al, 1990), parental mental health status, (Weissman et al, 1997;Cortes et al, 2009) and their respective associations with illegal substance use (including cannabis) in children. These studies have largely focused on adolescents (Cortes et al, 2009;Hayatbakhsh et al, 2006;Ledoux et al, 2002;Needle et al, 1990;Neher and Short, 1998) compared to young adults (Leib et al, 2002;Hayatbakhsh et al, 2009).…”

A biopsychosocial model of the development of chronic conduct problems in adolescence.

“…Boys have been found to be more adversely affected by poverty (Elder, 1979), divorce (Needle, Su, & Doherty, 1990), and single parenthood (Hetherington, Camara, & Featherman, 1983) than have girls. Likewise, in the CDP, boys were more likely to increase their aggression rates following bouts of parent-child coercion than were girls (McFadyen-Ketchum et al, 1996).…”