Abstract
Objective: Alcohol use continues to be a major problem in America. There are an estimated 17.5 million children in the United States, under age 18, who have at least one parent with an alcohol disorder. Studies have found that although all children are adversely affected by having a parent who is an alcoholic, a large number of children emerging from such homes have coped well. What are the factors that protect some children while others remain vulnerable? Existing studies have indicated that there exist some factors that mediate the effects of parental alcoholism on child’s substance abuse. This study is aimed at assessing the mediating effects of family cohesion on the relationship between maternal alcohol use and children’s substance usage.
Study Design: It was a cross-sectional non-experimental study. Secondary analysis was conducted using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data obtained from the Department of Labor.
Population, Sample, Setting, Years: The data from both the NLSY79 and its children’s datasets in 1994 were used to obtain the study sample of 1381 mother-child dyads. All the children in this study were between 10 and 14 years old in 1994.
Concept or Variables Studied: The concepts of interest are: mother’s alcohol use, child’s substance use, and family cohesion. In this study, mother’s alcohol use is theoretically defined as the consumption of alcoholic beverage by a mother. Family cohesion is defined as the emotional bonding that family members have toward one another. Child’s substance use is defined as the use of alcohol, cigarettes, and other illegal substances by a child. It is hypothesized that the link between mother’s alcohol use and her child’s own substance use is an indirect relationship. Family cohesion will mediate this relationship. All the concepts were measured using multiple items to minimize measurement error.
Methods and Procedure: The mothers had been asked questions related to their alcohol use, such as the duration, frequency, quantity, and impact of drinking. The children responded to other questionnaires assessing their own substance usage, such as the frequency, quantity, and starting ages of using different kinds of substances. Many variables assessing family cohesion were also obtained from both mothers and children. The concept of family cohesion in this study consisted of four subconcepts: parent-child conflict, parent-child closeness, conflict between parents, and closeness within family. The higher the closeness score and the lower the conflict score, the higher the family cohesion score would be. Each subconcept was measured by 3 to 5 items. For example, the children were asked to assess how often he/she argued with parents over various household rules. They also rated how close they felt to each of the parents, how often their parents argued with each other, and how often they felt caught in the middle of parents. The mothers were asked to assess the quality of the relationship with her child, the relationships between siblings, and the relationship within the family.
The study tested family cohesion as a mediator of children’s substance use following the procedure outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986). Confirmatory factor analysis was performed first to ensure the validity of the measurement model. Subsequent path analysis with latent variable (structural equation modeling) then was conducted to validate the mediating model.
Findings: There were 280 (20.3%) mothers who drank weekly and 16 (1.2%) mothers who drank daily. 47(3.4%) mothers drank more than 60 drinks each moth. There were 215 (16.1%) children who reported having drunk alcohol and 14.9% smoked cigarettes. A smaller percentage of children also reported marijuana use and other substance usage. Structural equation modeling revealed that mother’s alcohol use indirectly influenced her child’s substance usage. Family cohesion played an important mediating role in this relationship. Family cohesion decreases as the level of mother’s alcohol use increases (path coefficient=-0.17, t=-4.12, p<. 05), and in turn, decreased family cohesion is associated with higher level of child’s own substances usage (path coefficient=-0.31, t=-7.29, p<. 05).
Conclusion: Family cohesion mediated the effects of mother’s alcohol use on child’s substance use.
Implications: This study gives strong support to the notion that the quality of family functioning may be more important than simply the presence or absence of parental alcohol use in explaining children’s diverse developmental outcomes. Information about the family environment is likely to be more effective in identifying the children who are most likely to be at risk and who are most in need of assistance in coping with critical environmental stressors.
Back to Posters
Back to The Advancing Nursing Practice Excellence: State of the Science