Temperament Mediates the Effects of Family History of Substance Abuse on Externalizing and Internalizing Child Behavior

Temperament has been hypothesized to mediate the effects of family history of substance abuse (SA) on behavioral maladjustment in children. To date no study has provided empirical evidence to support this mediation hypothesis. In this study the temperament mediation hypothesis was tested employing hierarchical regression and other linear regression procedures. “Difficult affective temperament” in fathers and sons was found to mediate the relationship between SA+ family history and behavior maladjustment in 10‐ to 12‐year‐old sons of SA+ (n = 41) and SA‐ (n = 39) families. The authors discuss implications of the phenotype of difficult affective temperament in describing the developmental pathway to substance abuse.