Fluctuations in Parents' Warmth and Hostility Predicts Youth Substance Use and Delinquency

Background and Purpose:  Parent-child relationships are a key protective factor: Youth with warmer and less hostile relationships with their parents are less likely to engage in substance use and delinquency.  Normative changes occur in the parent-child relationship during adolescence: on average, parental warmth generally decreases and hostility increases.  In addition to linear changes, there may be lability in parental warmth and hostility ( i.e., fluctuations “up and down”).  Recent studies suggest that higher lability (more fluctuation) in parental knowledge of youth activities is associated with more youth risky behavior, especially for girls. Yet, little is known about how parental warmth and hostility fluctuate within families during early adolescence and its linkages to youth outcomes.  In this study, we examine how lability in mother and father warmth and hostility is associated with youth risky behavior.  We hypothesized that more lability (greater fluctuations) in parental warmth and hostility across Grade 6-8 would be associated with higher levels of youth delinquency and substance use in Grade 9. We also expect the links between lability and youth risky behavior to be stronger for girls than boys.

Methods: Longitudinal data were obtained from 618 mothers, youth, and fathers in two-parent rural families who participated in at least three waves of data collection in the PROSPER project (84% White). First, using 4 waves of data across Grade 6-8, growth models were used to derive each person’s scores for three components of change in warmth/ hostility: initial level, developmental trend (rate of change), and lability (intraindividual standard deviation). Second, we used Poisson regression models to examine linear and quadratic relations between lability and youth substance use and delinquency in Grade 9. Third, we used interaction terms to test if youth gender moderated the association between lability and risky behavior.  Youth reports of mother and father warmth and hostility were analyzed separately. Control variables included levels and developmental trends in parental warmth/hostility, demographics (dual biological marital status, intervention condition, parent education) and Grade 6 measures of the outcome variables. 

Results:  Greater lability in mother and father warmth was associated with more substance use and, for girls, more delinquency. The associations between lability in parents’ hostility and polysubstance use demonstrated an inverted U shape pattern such that moderate levels of lability in hostility were associated with greater substance use while low and very high lability in hostility was associated with less substance use.  For most of our sample, greater lability in hostility was associated with more substance use. However, for youth with very high lability scores (top 10% of scores) greater lability in hostility was associated with less substance use.

Conclusions and Implications:  Lability in mother and father warmth, perhaps indicative of parenting consistency, are unique risk factors for youth substance use and girls’ delinquency, above and beyond overall levels of relationship quality. However, extreme levels of lability in hostility may be protective against substance use.  Family-based interventions may consider including components that help parents develop and maintain relationship consistency.