(PS10-B50) Parent Well-being in the Context of Adolescent Substance Use

Adolescent substance use does not occur within a vacuum and can impact the entire family system. Limited research has explored how parents cope with the stress associated with having a substance-using child. Prior qualitative research suggests that parents often experience difficulty with trust, feelings of humiliation and self-blame, and a lack of social support (Choate, 2015; Jackson et al., 2007). We conducted a correlational study to examine the relationship between the severity of adolescent substance use and parent well-being (i.e., anxiety, depression, and coping). We conceptualized coping through the Response to Stress framework, which categorizes coping as primary control, secondary control, and disengagement (Compas et al., 2001). Primary control coping encompasses actions like problem solving or emotion regulation, secondary control coping involves mental adaptation to stress, such as acceptance or reframing, and disengagement involves avoiding or denying the stressor (Compas et al., 2001). 

A cross-sectional sample of parents (N = 57, M parent age = 43.3, 70.2% female, 73.7% White) of 13-18-year-old children (M child age = 15.8, 59.6% male, 66.7% White) living in the US were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Inclusion criteria included parent-report of any adolescent substance use in the past three months. The Marijuana Adolescent Problem Inventory (MAPI; Knapp et al., 2018) was adapted to examine the severity of any adolescent substance use (ɑ = 0.96). The Responses to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ; Connor-Smith et al., 2001) was used to examine parent primary control, secondary control, and disengagement coping strategies in response to family stress. A proportion score of the relative frequency of use of each type of coping strategy was calculated. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) was used to examine parent depressive symptoms (ɑ = 0.95). The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006) was used to examine parent anxiety symptoms (ɑ = 0.93). 

Pearson correlations were conducted using JASP to examine the strength of association between adolescent substance use severity and parent anxiety and depressive symptoms. Greater parent-reported adolescent substance use severity was associated with more parent depressive symptoms (r = 0.49, p < 0.001) and anxiety symptoms (r = 0.36, p = 0.01). A linear regression examined the main effects of parent primary control, secondary control, and disengagement coping on parent-reported adolescent substance use severity, controlling for adolescent age. Greater parent-reported adolescent substance use severity was significantly associated with less parent secondary control coping (β = -0.28, p = 0.04) and marginally associated with greater parent primary control coping (β = .26, p = 0.06).

In sum, greater parent-reported adolescent substance use severity was associated with greater parent anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and primary control coping, and less secondary control coping. Implications include the importance of offering support for families within the context of adolescent substance use treatment.