Poster #42 - Self-esteem Mediates the Longitudinal Association between Parent Practices and Adolescent Alcohol Usage

• In Event: 3-052 - Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: 14 - Parent-Adolescent Relationships

Abstract/Description

Introduction. Adverse parenting practices have adverse effects on child outcomes, ranging from lower academic success (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987) to delinquency behavior (Steinberg, Fletcher & Darling, 1994) to adjustment difficulties (Shumow & Lomax, 2009). There is considerable evidence linking poor parenting practices to increases in adolescent alcohol use (e.g. Barnes, Reifman, Farrell, & Dintcheff, 2000). It is likely that there is an explanatory mechanism driving this relationship. Adolescents with high levels of alcohol use are likely to experience decreased levels of self-esteem (DeSimone, Murray, & Lester, 1994), and therefore self-esteem may be the mechanism driving said relationship. The current study tests the hypotheses that associations between adverse parenting behaviors are indirectly associated with alcohol usage via changes in self-esteem.

Method. A staggered cohort longitudinal design was employed that included a total of 453 (215 boys, 238 girls) 9th graders and 464 (231 boys, 233 girls) 10th graders at the first assessment in spring, 2013. At the onset of the study, adolescents completed scales describing parental monitoring (Small & Kerns, 1993), parental psychological control (Barber, 1996), and parental connectedness (Arnold, Nott, & Meinhold, 2012). Adolescents also described indices of self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965) and alcohol use (e.g. Dickson, Laursen, Stattin, & Kerr, 2015).

Results. A mediation model was tested with Mplus v7.3 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2014) to explore the indirect association between parent practices and adolescent alcohol usage via self-esteem. Figure 1 describes the results. The model revealed indirect links between maternal psychological control and alcohol use such that self-esteem mediated the association between these two variables. Greater maternal psychological control was linked to decreases in self-esteem one year later, and lower levels of self-esteem were in turn, associated with greater increases in alcohol usage one year later. In subsequent analyses, parental psychological control was replaced with parental connectedness and parental monitoring. The same pattern of results emerged for parental connectedness (See Figure 2).

Discussion. This study elucidates that self-esteem may be the explanatory mechanism driving adverse parenting to impact adolescent alcohol usage. High levels of psychological control and low parental connectedness inhibit adolescents’ ability to socialize normally, creating feelings of low self-worth and value, and in turn, create an increased likelihood to use alcohol as a coping mechanism. The results offer insight into how the parenting impacts the children’s adjustment throughout high school. It helps us to better understand that adolescents who are not receiving enough parental support and autonomy as they enter adolescence need to receive adequate social support to buffer the effects of low self-esteem, in order to ensure the vulnerability does not transpire into alcohol usage and other detrimental behaviors.

Authors

• Melissa Jaime Huey, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Robert Altman, Florida Atlantic University

• Brett Laursen, Florida Atlantic University

• Rita Žukauskienė, Mykolas Romeris University

• Goda Kaniusonyte, Mykolas Romeris University