Parental Mediators of Associations between Perceived Authoritative Parenting and Early Adolescent Substance Use

Assessed in this study was whether a variety of specific parental behaviors mediated associations between perceived authoritative parenting and early adolescent substance use. Eighth-grade students (N = 182) completed questionnaires about their perceptions of parental warmth, behavioral control, and psychological autonomy granting, which were used to compute a measure of perceived parental authoritativeness. Adolescents indicated their perceptions of parents’acceptance of, and likely responses to, substance use. During telephone interviews, one parent of each of 113 adolescents indicated the extent to which he or she used specific strategies aimed at preventing offspring from engaging in substance use. Perceived authoritative parenting was associated with lower levels of substance use among boys and among girls. Perceived parental disciplinary consequences of engaging in substance use mediated associations between perceived authoritative parenting and girls’substance use. Associations between perceived parental authoritativeness and boys’ substance use were not linked by any specific parental behaviors.