The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71088

Chunki Fong, MS¹, Steve Magura, PhD, CSW¹, Andrew Rosenblum, PhD¹, Chris Norwood, BA², Doris Casella, MEd², and Alexandre Laudet, PhD¹. (1) Institute for Treatment and Services Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th floor, New York, NY 10010, (2) Health Force: Women and Men Against AIDS, 552 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10455

Objectives: To determine (1) the extent of agreement between high risk youths and their parents on perceptions of the quality of family environment and the youths’ peer relations; and (2) the joint effects of youth and parent perceptions of these attributes on the youths’ substance use. Study includes 85 youth-parent pairs, involving 56 parents, all in families with HIV+ adults. Parallel scales were administered to youths and parents to rate parental permissiveness, parental detachment, deviant peer networks and poor social skills. Dissimilarity score = absolute difference between parent and youth scale scores. Youth substance use index: any cigarette, alcohol or illicit drug use: 0 (no use) to 3 (used all 3). Correlations and OLS regression were conducted; statistics below are significant at p<.05, 1-tailed. Youths: mean age 11.7, 51% male, 57% African-Am., 31% Hispanic; 28% reported substance use (20% cigarette, 22% alcohol, 8% illicit drugs). Parents: mean age 40, 88% female, 89% HIV+. Pairwise comparisons of youth vs. parent perceptions - parental detachment (r=0.36), other n.s. Youth substance use vs. dissimilarity scores - parental permissiveness (r=0.27), parental detachment (r=0.20), and deviant peers (r=0.28). Four stepwise regressions were run with youth substance use as the dependent variable. Independent variables are dissimilarity scores and their component attributes. One regression showed a significant effect for the parental permissiveness dissimilarity score (b=0.18); others showed significance for youths' perceptions. Results indicate that research studies intended to explain youth substance use should incorporate parents’, not just youths’, perceptions of risk factors.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session the participant will be able to:
• Recognize that children and their parents may have discrepant perceptions of the family environment and youths’ peer relations;
• Realize that youth-parent discrepancies of family functioning may indicate a risk factor for substance use;
• Recognize the importance of assessing youths’ and parents’ perceptions of youth risk factors for substance use.

Keywords: Adolescents, Risk Factors

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.