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The Association Between Observed Parental Emotion Socialization and Adolescent Self-Medication

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Abstract

The current study examined the moderating influence of observed parental emotion socialization (PES) on self-medication in adolescents. Strengths of the study include the use of a newly developed observational coding system further extending the study of PES to adolescence, the use of an experience sampling method to assess the daily covariation between negative affect and substance use, and a focus on PES styles defined by the interaction of emotion-dismissing and emotion-coaching behaviors. Using multi-leveling modeling, we tested PES as a moderator of daily negative mood-substance use relation in a sample of 65 elevated-risk adolescents (48% male, 58% Caucasian, with a median age of 14). Results showed a three-way interaction between emotion-coaching PES, emotion-dismissing PES and daily negative mood in predicting daily substance use. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of PES styles and their effects on self-medication through compromised emotion regulation and interpersonal processes.

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Notes

  1. We selected EC standard deviations of ±0.5 and ±1.0 given the small number of adolescents with parents who demonstrated EC behaviors well beyond one standard deviation above or below the mean (i.e., 17% and 19% of sample with parents respectively showing EC behaviors less than and greater than one standard deviation below and above the mean.

  2. Two alternative patterns of increased likelihood for daily substance use emerged from the interactional effects of emotion-coaching and punitive PES responses, both not conforming to self-medication. First, adolescents whose parents demonstrated relatively low levels EC behaviors combined with an absence of punitiveness (i.e., disengaged PES style) were at relatively uniform risk for substance use on any given day regardless of the level of negative mood they were experiencing (see Fig. 1). Second, adolescents whose parents demonstrated a presence of punitiveness but with the lowest levels of EC response (i.e., punitive-low coaching PES style) were at slightly elevated risk for daily substance use regardless of negative mood experienced within a given day. However, due to the low predicted probabilities of substance use and the small subgroup of adolescents (N = 6; 9% of sample) driving such an effect, we do not interpret these findings any further.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Division of Psychology, Children’s Hospital Boston, Hunnewell 125, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Matthew A. Hersh

  2. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Andrea M. Hussong

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  1. Matthew A. Hersh
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Correspondence to Matthew A. Hersh.

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Hersh, M.A., Hussong, A.M. The Association Between Observed Parental Emotion Socialization and Adolescent Self-Medication. J Abnorm Child Psychol 37, 493–506 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-008-9291-z

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