Linking Parent Affective Brain Response, Observed Parenting, and Adolescent Substance Use

Positive parenting is crucial for the prevention of youth substance use. However, parent-focused interventions show small effect sizes, and previous studies suggest parent programs are not effective for all families (Maliken & Katz, 2013). One factor that may hinder positive intervention effects is parent emotional functioning. Indeed, evidence shows that heightened emotional reactivity is related to negative parenting practices and may influence intervention success (Crandall et al., 2015). However, implicit emotional processes that may impact parenting behaviors are difficult to measure with self-report measures and observation alone. To address this issue, the present study used functional MRI to examine parent emotion-related brain function and examined associations with observed parenting behaviors and adolescent substance use.

Participants included 20 female primary caregivers and their adolescents (ages 11-16). Parents completed an emotion-processing task during an fMRI scanning session, comprised of 27 negative, 27 neutral, and 27 negative adolescent images presented in pseudo-randomized order across three 6.5-minute runs (analyses focus on the negative pictures-neutral contrast). Parent-adolescent dyads participated in a laboratory conflict interaction task, and observed parent emotional reactivity and structure/involvement were globally coded (PAIT Coding System; Chaplin, 2010). Adolescents reported on substance use during the past year using the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (Rahdert, 1991), with 1 = any past year substance use and 0 = no past year substance use).

Region of interest analyses of a priori regions were conducted using the Automated Anatomical Atlas (Tzourio-Mazoyer et al., 2002), including bilateral amygdala, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Results of linear regressions showed that greater parent bilateral ACC BOLD response in the negative-neutral contrast was associated with lower parent structure/involvement in the lab task (L: Beta = -0.51, p < .05; R: Beta = -0.51, p < .05). Greater parent left amygdala (Beta = -0.41, p = .08) and bilateral insula (L: Beta = -0.41, p = .08; R: Beta = .47, p =.06) responses were associated with lower parent structure at a level approaching significance. Greater parent left insula response was associated with higher emotional reactivity (L: Beta = 0.45, p < .05). Finally, adolescent substance use was associated with parent’s bilateral ACC response (L: Beta = .47, p < .05; R: Beta = .58, p < .01).

Findings suggest that neural processing of negative emotional stimuli is linked to parenting practices. Namely, greater responsivity in emotion-related brain regions was associated with less parent structure and more negative emotional reactivity during a stressful parent-adolescent interaction. In addition, ACC response was linked to both parenting behavior and adolescent substance use, suggesting this region may be a key biomarker in family focused prevention of youth substance use. Given that ACC is involved in the monitoring and appraisal of negative emotional states, future parent-focused preventions should focus on parent’s appraisal of their emotional experience during stressful parent-child interactions.