The Intergenerational Transmission of Substance Use Across Two Generations of Mexican American Families

• In Event: 3-167 - The Intergenerational Transmission of Substance Use: Preventive and Contributing Mechanisms

Integrative Statement

The current study examines the intergenerational transmission of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use across two generations of Mexican American families. Extant research suggests that Hispanic adolescents, and Mexican American adolescents in particular, are at considerable risk for ATOD use (Delva et al., 2005; Johnston et al., 2016). Given the growing size of the Mexican American adolescent population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015), their increased risk for ATOD use, and the oftentimes serious consequences of that use, it is critical to identify developmental processes that contribute to substance use for Mexican American adolescents. The goal of the current research is to examine how these processes unfold over time and across generations by evaluating a model that is informed by the interactionist model of socioeconomic status and human development (IM).

The IM was developed by Conger and his colleagues (Conger & Donnellan, 2007; Conger et al., 2010; Martin et al., 2010) to explain continuity and discontinuity in the characteristics and behaviours observed across generations of the same family members. The current research evaluates the IM depicted in Figure 1, which proposes that the first-generation parents’ (G1) ATOD use negatively impacts their later socioeconomic status, as well as contributing to greater family stress. In turn, greater G1 SES is expected to predict lower levels family stress, as well as greater material investments in the next generation adolescent (G2). These material investment in the G2 adolescent involve several dimensions of family support, including the provision of adequate food, housing, clothing and medical care, as well as living in more economically advantaged neighborhoods with lower crime and access to more advantaged schools. At the same time, family stress during middle adolescence is expected to lower parental investments in adolescents in terms of parental warmth, monitoring, and appropriate discipline strategies. Ultimately, these material and parenting investments G1 parents make in the G2 adolescent are hypothesized to predict lower levels of adolescent ATOD use in later adolescence, controlling for earlier use by the adolescent.

The present study uses structural equation modeling to evaluate the model presented in Figure 1 using data from a cohort of 478 Mexican American youth (51% female), their G1 mothers (median age 36 at grade 5) and G1 fathers (median age 39 at grade 5) followed longitudinally beginning in grade 5 when the youth averaged 10.8 years of age through their first year post high school (Mage=18.8). G1 mother, G1 father and G2 youth ATOD use were assessed with self-reports during early adolescence (Mage=10.8). G1 SES, family stress, material and parenting investments were assessed during mid-adolescence when the youth averaged approximately 15 years of age. G2 ATOD during late adolescence (Mage=18.8) was also assessed using self-reports. All measures have adequate reliability. The results of the structural equation modeling are largely consistent with predictions from the IM and suggest that G1 substance use initiates a sequential cascade of difficulties involving economic problems, family stress processes and disruptions in parenting, which ultimately impacts G2 adolescent substance use in later adolescence.

Authors

• Monica J. Martin, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Richard W. Robins, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author