Parental Substance Use Perception, Anxiety Symptomatology, and Young Adults’ Alcohol and Drug Use Problems

Aims

Substance abuse is a prevalent public health concern in the U.S., particularly amongst non-metropolitan young adults (McCabe, Louie, & King, 2015). Youth reared by substance-abusing parents are at risk for increased anxiety problems (Hussong, Flora, Curran, Chassin, & Zucker, 2008) and substance use problems during young adulthood (Ohannessian et al., 2004). However, more research is needed to examine the mechanisms underlying these associations. The self-medication hypothesis suggests that young adults use substances as a coping strategy to soothe anxiety symptoms, which may be induced by parental substance use (PSU; Chassin, Presson, Rose, & Sherman, 1996). The current study aimed to examine the association between PSU and young adults’ substance use problems, and the indirect effect of anxiety symptoms on this association.

Methods

The study used a non-metropolitan community sample of 118 young adults (M_age= 21.91, SD_ag =2.07) without a college degree (51.7% female; 53.4% Caucasian). Most participants (73.7%) indicated an annual income below $20,000. PSU consequences were assessed with the Structured Assessment Record of Alcoholic Homes (Ohannessian et al., 2004). Participants self-reported their anxiety symptoms with the Generalized Anxiety Disorders scale (Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Löwe, 2006). Young adults’ alcohol and drug use problems were assessed by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Babor, Higgins-Biddle, Saunders, & Monteiro, 2001) and the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (Berman, Bergman, Palmstierna, & Schlyter, 2005), respectively.

Results

Data were modeled using Mplus 7.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 2012). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the factor structure of PSU consequences consisting of three indicators: worry/concern, avoidance, and anger. A structural equation model was constructed to examine the associations between PSU consequences, young adults’ anxiety symptoms, and alcohol and drug use problems. Results indicated that PSU consequences were positively associated with anxiety symptoms (β = .33, p < .01). Further, anxiety symptoms were associated with higher levels of alcohol use problems (β = .20, p < .05) and drug use problems (β = .26, p < .01). The indirect effects between PSU consequences and young adults’ alcohol use problems (α*β = .07, p < .05) and drug use problems (α*β = .09, p < .05) through anxiety symptoms were significant.

Conclusions

Parental substance use problems are a significant risk factor for substance use problems among young adults. Anxiety symptoms might underlie the link between PSU and substance use problems, therefore could be targeted by preventive intervention programs to reduce the risk of substance misuse among children of parents with substance use problems.