The Association of Parentification Indicators with Substance Use Patterns Among Military-Connected Adolescents

Background and Purpose: While most military families thrive despite facing challenges, research has connected war-related stressors to various negative outcomes, including substance use, for military-connected adolescents. Emotional and instrumental parentification are among the mechanisms hypothesized to account for these negative outcomes. However, particularly in minority cultures, research has also demonstrated that experiences of parentification may be protective for adolescents. The military is often described as having its own culture, but outcomes associated with parentification have not been examined in this population. The purpose of this study is to explore patterns of instrumental parentification indicators among military-connected youth and connections with patterns of substance use. Findings may illuminate whether indicators of parentification are protective or increase risk for military-connected youth.

Methods: Data were drawn from 1441 military-connected 7^th, 9^th and 11^th graders who have a parent in the military and completed the 2013 California Healthy Kids Survey.  Latent class analysis was used to examine patterns of military-connectedness (experiencing parental deployment, feeling worried about someone currently deployed) and instrumental parentification indicators (self-rated independence, responsibilities at home, problem solving compared to peers) and associated patterns of self-reported substance use (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, inhalant use).

Results: Based on indicators including low Adjusted Bayesian Information Criterion and significant Lo-Mendell-Rubin Likelihood Ratio Test as well as conceptual considerations, a three-class solution was best fitting for parentification indicators, where students were most likely to rate themselves as low (36.11% of the sample), medium (39.54%) or high (34.55%) on all three indicators.  A three-class solution was also best for substance use, including abstainers (73.87%), polysubstance experimenters (14.34%) and frequent polysubstance users (11.79%).  A combined model determined how membership in parentification classes predicted membership in substance use classes.  Military-connected students in the high parentification class were significantly less likely to be in the frequent substance use class compared to the abstainer class (OR=0.376, 95% CI: 0.180-0.782.)

Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest that, similar to other minority cultures, experiences of instrumental parentification may be protective for adolescents in military families. The majority of military-connected youth in this sample reported little substance use. Youth who were more likely to report having more responsibilities at home, being more independent, and being able to solve problems better than peers were significantly less likely to report frequent polysubstance use. Qualitative research suggests that military-connected youth report a sense of self-efficacy and pride at contributing to the wellbeing of their families during a difficult period. These skills, developed in the context of their families, may translate to better coping with other stressful situations. Professionals may be able to build on these strengths and develop adaptive coping strategies to support military-connected youth in managing the stressors of wartime military life along with normative stressors faced by all adolescents. While this study identifies instrumental parentification as a potential strength for military-connected adolescents, future research should address possible risks associated with emotional parentification, which is of concern particularly in the subset of military families where the at-home spouse is experiencing emotional or behavioral consequences of war-related stressors.