The Adult and Family Development Project

1
The Adult and Family Development Project

• Supported by NIDA Grant DA05227
• Consultants Ken Sher, Bengt Muthen
• Co-Authors of these analyses
• Manuel Barrera, Craig Colder, Amanda Cumberland,
  Patrick Curran, Andrea Hussong, Kevin King,
  Steven Pitts, Justin Prost, Mike Todd

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Project Goals

• 1. Why does parent alcoholism raise risk for
  addictive disorders? (Mediators)
• 2. What are protective factors that buffer risk?
  (Moderators)
• What are consequences of adolescent substance use
  for later development?

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Data Sources/Design

• Parents Parents Parents Parents Offspring
• Target Target Target Target Target
• School Sibs Sibs
• Collateral Collateral

1988 1989 1990 1995-1997 2000-2004 12
.7y 13.7y 14.7y 20y 25y (5-12) N454 N732
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Some Methodological Advantages

• Community Sample
• Direct Ascertainment
• Assessment of Co-morbidities
• Includes Alcoholic Mothers
• Multiple Reporter Data
• Good Retention Over Time (90-98)

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Parent Alcoholism Predicts Adolescent Drug Use

Parent Antisocial Personality
Intercept
Parent Affective Disorder
Parent Alcoholism
Age
Slope
Gender
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Parent Alcoholism Raises Risk for Substance Use
Disorders

• COA Control
  OR
• Alcohol 52.6 25.3 3.28
• Drug 21.1 8.8 2.79
• (Abuse/Dependence at median age20)

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Hypothesized Mediating Mechanisms (from Sher,
1991)
Behavioral Undercontrol
Parent Alcoholism
Stress and Negative Affect
Drug Abuse Dependence
Enhanced Reinforcement
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What is Behavioral Undercontrol?

• Variously operationalized as
• Impulsivity
• Sensation-Seeking
• Constraint
• Rebelliousness
• Aggression
• Conduct Problems

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Is Parent Alcoholism Related to Behavioral
Undercontrol?

• In Childhood/Adolescence
• AFDP
• Michigan Longitudinal Study
• CEDAR
• Montreal Group
• In Late Adolescence/Adulthood
• Minnesota Family Twin Study
• Missouri Health and Behavior Study
• Australian Twin Registry

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Does Behavioral Undercontrol Predict Drug
Outcomes?

• Yes-Consistent Agreement
• Across different outcomes
• Prospective and cross-sectional
• e.g., Caspi et al. (1996) for males

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Does Behavioral Undercontrol Mediate Parent
Alcoholism Risk?

• Yes-Cross-Sectionally mediates heritable risk
• Minnesota Twin Family Study (Iacono et al, 1999)
• Slutske et al. (2002)
• Prospectively predicts AUDs (include conduct
  problems as undercontrol) Sher et al. (1999)

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Behavioral Undercontrol as a Mediator of Family
Alcoholism Risk for Drug Use Disorder
0.18
Parental Alcoholism
Young Adult Drug Use Disorder
0.308
Adolescent Under-control
0.17

• Mediated Effect.05 (Sobels method, Mackinnon
  Dwyer (1993)
• Proportion Mediated ? 22.5
• p lt 0.05
• p lt 0.01
• p lt 0.001 N 394

Covariates Gender Age Parent Antisocial
Personality
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Complete vs partial mediation

• Mediator of genetic risk vs. genetic plus
  environmental risk
• Cross-sectional vs. prospective

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Intergenerational Transmission of Behavioral
Undercontrol
Mom Impulsivity
.12
.22
.49
Adolescent Impulsivity
Young Adult Drug Diagnosis
Dad Impulsivity
.4
.17
.27
Adolescent Drug Use
Mom Alcoholism
.14
No moderation by Gender For mom-significant
mediation through impulsivity
Dad Alcoholism

Parent Antisocial
n 263
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Conclusions

• For Maternal alcoholism
• Correlated process of intergenerational
  transmission of behavioral undercontrol
• Why not for fathers?
• Sampling? Power? Marginal zero order correlation
  of dad and child impulsivity
• Different process? Other ways that parents
  influence child regulationconflict??

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Is Parenting a Protective Factor?
Maternal Support
Parent Alcoholism
Behavioral Undercontrol
Drug Abuse/ Dependence
Parent Antisociality

• Adolescents perceptions of maternal support
  interact with behavioral undercontrol to predict
  later drug diagnoses

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Butnot the classic buffering effect

• Interaction is protective but reactive (Luthar
  et al., 2000)
• Protection is lost at the highest levels of
  behavioral undercontrol

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Usefulness of high risk studies

• High Risk Studies
• Allow look at high levels of the risk factor
• Produce protective but reactive form
• (Wooten et al., 1997)

• Community Studies
• Look at less extreme levels of the risk factor
• Produce Classic Buffering
• (Stice Gonzales, 1998)

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Summary of Mediator Findings

• COAs at higher risk for drug disorders (OR 2-3)
• COAs behaviorally undercontrolled
• Behavioral undercontrol prospectively predicts
  drug disorders (1sd----doubles the odds)
• Undercontrol partially mediates parent alcoholism
  effects on later diagnoses
• Other Pathways for COAs
• For Maternal Alcoholism, correlated
  intergenerational transmission of undercontrol

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Summary of Moderator Findings

• Adolescents perceptions of maternal support
  buffer the impact of behavioral undercontrol on
  later drug disorders
• Buffering is Protective but Reactive
• Interventions to increase maternal support may be
  less useful for adolescents who are highly
  impulsive and sensation-seeking.