Parental Monitoring As a Protective Factor Against the Influence of Friends' Substance Use: An Intercultural Comparison Between American and French Canadian Secondary School Students

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by an increase in substance use. Adolescents are particularly sensitive to the negative effects of substance use, which can lead to various negative psychosocial consequences (Barron, 2005). Simultaneously, friends become increasingly meaningful (Berndt, 1982), and for adolescents who affiliate with deviant peers, friendships can lead to problematic behaviour like substance use (Dishion, et al., 2010). Parents may attempt to minimise this risk by monitoring their child’s activities, but their influence may differ across cultures. This study tests the hypothesis that parental monitoring is a protective factor for adolescents at risk for substance use by associating with substance-using peers. Moderation analyses are conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSSv.22, on an American sample and on a French Canadian sample.

The American sample consists of 1,278 participants from Oregon. Adolescent substance use and parental monitoring were taken from The Student Self-Report Survey (Dishion & Stormshack, 2001). Best friends’ substance use was assessed through friends’ self-report data. Parental monitoring in Gr 7 is tested as a moderator of the relation between friends’ substance use in Gr 6 and adolescent use in Gr 8 while controlling for participants’ initial levels of use in Gr 6. The French Canadian sample consists of 218 participants from a Montreal suburb. Participants completed items from the DEP-ADO,a self-report questionnaire on their own and friends’ substance use (Germain, 2013). Parental monitoring was also assessed through adolescent report. Analyses for this sample were based on Gr 8, 9, and 10 data.

For the American sample, parental monitoring significantly moderates the relation between friends’ substance use in Gr 6 and participants’ increase in substance use by Gr. 8 (b=-.81, SE=.39, 95%, CI [–.1.5782,–.0.0503]), p < 0.01), with monitoring attenuating the risk associated with having friends who use substances. For the French Canadian sample, results were non-significant (b=.07, SE=.09, 95%, CI [–.1073, .2482]), p= .43).

Results from the American sample support the literature on the protective role played by parental monitoring in adolescence. The non-significant findings in the Canadian sample suggest that protective factors other than monitoring need to be identified to inform substance use prevention programs in Canada. The older age of the Canadian sample and the use of different measure instruments are factors that may account for divergent results. Overall, results confirm that adolescence is a critical period for including parents in prevention programs aiming to reduce substance use in American students, but alternative protective factors need to be investigated for Canadian youth.