Family Influences Related to Adult Substance Use and Mental Health Problems: A Developmental Analysis of Child and Adolescent Predictors

Abstract

Purpose This study investigates measures of family conflict, family management, and family involvement at ages 10–12, 13–14, and 15–18 as predictors of adult depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder symptoms classes at age 27. The objective was to assess the relative influence on adult outcomes of each family predictor measured similarly at different points in adolescent development. Methods Data are from the Seattle Social Development Project, a theory-driven longitudinal study that began in 1985 with 808 fifth-grade students from 18 Seattle public elementary schools. A Latent Class Analysis of adult outcomes was followed by bivariate and multivariate models for each family predictor. Of the original 808 participants, 747 participants (92% of the original sample) had available data at age 27 on the mental health and substance use latent class indicators. Missing data were handled using full-information maximum likelihood estimation. Results Four latent classes were derived: a “low disorder” symptoms class, a “licit substance use disorder symptoms” class, a “mental health disorder symptoms” class, and a “comorbid” class. Multivariate results show that family conflict is the strongest and most consistent predictor of the adult mental health and substance use classes. Family management, but not family involvement, was also predictive of the adult outcome classes. Conclusions It is important to lessen family conflict and improve family management to prevent later mental health and substance use problems in adulthood.

Childhood Adversity, Families, Neighborhoods, and Cognitive Outcomes: Testing Structural Models of the Bioecological Framework

“…Family conflict has been found to be predictive of negative mental and behavioral health outcomes later in life (Paradis et al, 2009;Herrenkohl et al, 2012). The effects of familial conflict can be manifested much earlier, including in early adolescence (Evans et al, 2008).…”

Trends in Life Satisfaction and Self-rated Health in Czech School-aged Children: HBSC Study.

“…Besides the above mentioned factors, SRH is closely linked to anxiety and depression (14). It is also influenced by family structure, communication with parents, school environment, success, failure, or bullying (8,28).…”

Comorbid alcohol and mental health disorders: a longitudinal analysis of development to young adulthood

“…Interestingly, the poly-substance group tended to have fewer mental health disorders (mean = 1.4) than the AUD/MHD comorbid group (mean = 1.8), and were more likely to be male. These groupings also differed somewhat from the analyses which included only cannabis disorders (171,197), suggesting potential heterogeneity in the factors underlying illicit substance use disorders. Our previous papers had identified a range of individual and family factors as predicting comorbid mental health and alcohol use disorders.…”

“…Although comorbidity was associated with poor family management in one study (171), and with maternal inconsistency with rules in another (197), the literature on parenting is muddied by inconsistent methods of measuring facets of family and parenting environments. In addition to this, factors may be defined by parental report, child report or observational studies.…”

“…Hence, the Latent Class Modelling approach was adopted. Unlike earlier prospective studies which had used cannabis use as a proxy for illicit substance use disorders (171,197), we included a range of illicit SUD, as well as alcohol use disorders, depression and anxiety in our analysis. From this, four latent classes were identified.…”