Is the Effect of Parenting on Substance Use among Adolescents and Young Adults Context Dependent? Evidence from Ten Countries of Southeastern Europe

Abstract

Related to some inconsistent evidence in the literature, the current study tested the links between three parenting styles and four measures of substance use in samples of adolescents and young adults from ten, socio-economically diverse countries in Southeastern Europe (N = 10,909, 50.3% males, M_age = 21.70, SD = 4.5); it also tested whether these links were moderated by a measure of social progress. Results indicated that only authoritative parenting style was negatively associated with substance use; both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were positively associated with substance use. The country-level effect on substance use was modest, yet significant; it explained between 1% and 4% of the total variance. Findings also provided some evidence of a moderation effects by social progress. Exploratory follow-up HLM analyses also provided evidence of significant country level social progress effects on alcohol use, soft drug use, and hard drug use; however, no significant cross-level interactions effects were found. Key study implications include positive effects by both authoritarian and permissive parenting on young adult substance use, but importantly, negative ones by authoritative parenting. Findings have important implications for potential intervention and prevention efforts, in addition to addressing potential country-level differences.

Keywords:

• Adolescents
• cross-cultural analysis parenting styles
• substance use
• young adults

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of the “Youth in Southeast Europe 2018/2019” project, commissioned and supported by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation (https://www.fes.de/en/youth-studies/).

Notes on contributors

Rudi Klanjšek

Rudi Klanjšekis an economist and Professor of Sociology at the University of Maribor and a researcher at the Center for the Study of Post-Socialist Societies. His research interest include youth studies, where he focuses on issues related to youth well-being and health (e.g., youth and family context, youth and substance use, youth and labour markets, youth and housing etc.).

Alexander T. Vazsonyi

Alexander T. Vazsonyi is Professor of Family Sciences, Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. He is also a Director of the Adolescent Development Lab at the University of Kentucky, and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Early Adolescence. He is recognized for his work on child and adolescent development, particularly cross-cultural comparative research ranging from family context to larger cultural developmental processes, as well as on self-control theory.

Magda Javakhishvili

Magda Javakhishvili is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Her research focuses on child and adolescent development, life-course human development, with specific areas of research including various internalizing (depression, anxiety, PTSD) and externalizing problems (delinquency, crime, antisocial personality), the roles of individual and contextual influences, of childhood abuse and neglect in later development.