RESUMO
Purpose: Preventing substance use initiation (SUI) can reduce negative consequences associated with adult substance use disorder. The role of involvement with deviant peers, school connectedness, and parenting quality on SUI was investigated among a community sample (N = 387).Method: PROCESS tested whether three parenting quality factors (Parental Knowledge and Affective Relationships, Parental Control, and Parental Communication and Involvement) served as moderators of two different mediation pathways (involvement with deviant peers and school connectedness) on three SUI outcomes (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana).Results: Involvement with deviant peers mediated the relation between school connectedness and substance use. Low school connectedness predicted high deviant peer affiliation, which, in turn, predicted high SUI. School connectedness did not mediate involvement with deviant peers and substance use. Parenting quality factors were not significant moderators.Conclusion: Supporting adolescents who lack strong school connections may help prevent involvement with deviant peers, which, in turn, may prevent SUI.
RESUMO
Many measures exist that assess parenting skills and practices. Few comprehensive measures for parents of adolescents (13-17 years) exist. The aim of the current study was to develop a comprehensive assessment measure of parenting practices based on items from existing measures. Research and clinical settings can benefit from the advancement of a valid and more inclusive measure of parenting to assess youth behavior and functioning. This study utilized a sample that included 387 caregivers and youth (mean age of youth = 13.6, SD = .59) from a longitudinal study examining contextual influences on youths'substance use initiation. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on 12 parent-report measures of parenting. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on a second sample, which included peers (N = 362, mean age of peers = 13.6, SD = 1.09) and peers' caregivers of the youth included in the original sample. The EFA results indicated a three-factor solution (i.e., parental knowledge and affective relationships, parental control, parental communication and involvement), which was supported in the CFA. The final measure demonstrated strong internal consistency and satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. This study supported the sound psychometrical features of the Parenting Practice Measure (PPM), a comprehensive measure of parenting quality for adolescent samples. The PPM can serve as a tool for clinicians to design more targeted treatment plans and evaluate the effectiveness of treatments when working with parents with children in the early teenage years.