Longitudinal Association Between Peer Victimization and Sleep Problems in Preschoolers: The Moderating Role of Parenting

This study examined the moderating role of parental behaviors in the longitudinal link between peer victimization and sleep problems during preschool. The sample consisted of 1,181 children (594 girls) attending day care between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Participants were part of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a longitudinal study of child development led by the Institut de la Statistique du Quebec. Controlling for potential confounders, latent growth curve analyses revealed that the association between peer victimization and sleep problems varied depending on parents’ behaviors. Coercive parenting exacerbated the link between peer victimization and parasomnias. In contrast, positive parenting mitigated the link between peer victimization and insomnia. The findings suggest that persistent sleep problems at a young age may be an indicator of chronic peer victimization but that parents’ behaviors can play a key role in victimized children’s sleep problems.     

Moderators of the association between peer and target adolescent substance use

Associating with substance using peers is generally considered as one of the most important predictors of adolescent substance use. However, peer association does not affect all adolescents in the same way. To better understand when and under what conditions peer association is most linked with adolescent substance use (SU), this review focuses on the factors that may operate as moderators of this association. The review highlighted several potential moderators reflecting adolescents' individual characteristics (e.g., pubertal status, genes and personality), peer and parental factors (e.g., nature of relationships and parental monitoring), and contextual factors (e.g., peer, school and neighborhood context). As peer association is a broad concept, important methodological aspects were also addressed in order to illustrate how they can potentially bias interpretation. Taking these into account, we suggest that, while the effects of some moderators are clear (e.g., parental monitoring and sensation seeking), others are less straightforward (e.g., neighborhood) and need to be further examined. This review also provides recommendations for addressing different methodological concerns in the study of moderators, including: the use of longitudinal and experimental studies and the use of mediated moderation. These will be key for developing theory and effective prevention.     

Impulsivity predicts problem gambling in low SES adolescent males

Aims. This study investigated whether impulsivity measured in 12-14-year-olds could predict problem gambling in late adolescence, above and beyond other personality factors such as aggressiveness and anxiety. Design. A prospective-longitudinal design was used, thus overcoming limitations of past studies which used concurrent or retrospective designs. Participants and measurements. The sample included 154 boys living in economically deprived neighborhoods. Impulsivity measures comprised self-reports, teacher ratings and laboratory tasks, and were administered during early adolescence. Gambling behavior was assessed at age 17 using a self-report measure. Early gambling behavior and socio-demographic information were also collected for control purposes. Findings. Results revealed that a self-report measure of impulsiveness and a card-sorting task significantly predicted problem gambling, even after controlling for socio-demographic variables, early gambling behavior and other personality variables such as aggressiveness and anxiety. Moreover, the predictive link held across all levels of aggressiveness and anxiety. Both impulsivity measures seemed to tap an inability to foresee negative consequences and an inability to stop responding despite unfavorable contingencies. Conclusion. These findings suggest that disinhibited individuals with response modulation deficits are at risk for problem gambling, thus supporting the DSM-IV classification of pathological gambling as an impulse control deficit.     

Trajectories of adolescent poly-substance use and their long-term social and economic outcomes for males from low-income backgrounds

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - Substance abuse is a significant public health concern that disproportionately burdens males and low-income communities. This study examined (1)...     

Preventing disruptive boys from becoming heavy substance users during adolescence: A longitudinal study of familial and peer-related protective factors

Childhood disruptiveness is one of the most important antecedents of heavy substance use in adolescence, especially among boys. The first aim of the present study is to verify whether parental monitoring and friend conventionality protect disruptive boys from engaging in heavy substance-use in adolescence. The second purpose is to examine whether these protective effects are strengthened by attachment to parents or friends respectively. Finally, the third objective is to verify whether the expected protective effect of parental monitoring could be mediated through exposure to conventional friends. A sample of 1037 boys from low socioeconomic neighbourhoods was followed from childhood (age 6) to adolescence (age 15). Parent, teacher, and self-reported measures were used to measure disruptiveness, parental monitoring, family attachment, friend conventionality, and attachment to friends. Results suggest that parental monitoring and friends' conventionality mitigated the relationship between childhood disruptiveness and adolescence heavy substance use. Exposure to conventional friends further mediated the protective effect of parent monitoring. The postulated enhancement of attachment quality on the protective effect of parents or peer behaviors was not confirmed, but low attachment was related to heavier substance use in highly monitored disruptive boys. Parental monitoring, family attachment, and peer conventionality are factors amenable to intervention, and thus represent promising targets for future prevention strategies aimed at-risk boys. Our results underscore the importance of simultaneously addressing the behavioral and the affective dimensions in interventions with parents.     

Problem drug and alcohol use in a community sample of adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological studies of illegal drug use in adolescents have examined frequency of drug use; a few have examined diagnoses or symptoms of drug abuse or dependence. This study examined problem use of illegal drugs, about which very little is known. METHOD: Adolescents (879 boys and 929 girls), mean age of 15.7 years, representative of the province of Québec, Canada, were asked about problem use of alcohol and illegal drugs. RESULTS: Almost one third had used illegal drugs more than 5 times. Of this group, more than 70% reported going to school high on drugs, and the majority reported playing sports while high and using drugs in the morning. In these drugs users, 94% of the boys and 85% of the girls reported at least 1 problem and two thirds of the boys and more than half of the girls reported 3 or more problems from illegal drugs. Marijuana was used by almost all subjects at the time of maximal drug use; hallucinogens were the second most commonly used drug. Alcohol was used more frequently than illegal drugs, but problem use was less common. CONCLUSIONS: Problem drug use is the norm among the large minority who use illegal drugs more than a few times, and drug use is commonly incorporated into 2 major routine activities of teenagers--school and sports.     

Childhood behavioral profiles leading to adolescent conduct disorder: risk trajectories for boys and girls

OBJECTIVE: To examine the link between childhood behavioral dimensions and adolescent conduct disorder (CD) among a large sample of boys and girls monitored longitudinally. METHOD: Teachers rated the behaviors of 1,569 children every year between kindergarten and grade 6. On the basis of these seven yearly ratings, groups of children who followed distinct trajectories on three behavioral dimensions--hyperactivity, fearfulness, and helpfulness--were identified with a semiparametric statistical analysis. Children were then categorized into one of eight behavioral profiles, representing different combinations of the trajectories. Logistic regressions were used to estimate the relation between the profiles and CD in adolescence (mean = 15.7 years). RESULTS: Boys had a significant risk for CD if they were hyperactive (odds ratio [OR] = 4.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-10.16); hyperactive and unhelpful (OR = 2.83; CI, 1.07-7.46); or hyperactive, fearless, and unhelpful (OR = 3.93; CI, 1.27-12.17). Girls had a significant risk for CD only if they were both hyperactive and unhelpful (OR = 4.61; CI, 1.31-16.24). More boys than girls exhibited profiles of risk and met criteria for CD in adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: Sex-specific childhood behavioral profiles that represented risk for CD in adolescence were identified.There were sex differences in the prevalence of the childhood profiles representing risk for CD.     

History of family dysfunction and perpetration of dating violence by adolescent boys: a longitudinal study.

PURPOSE: To examine whether there is a direct or a mediated association between dysfunctional parental behavior in later childhood and involvement in dating violence in a sample of low socioeconomic-status boys during mid-adolescence. METHODS: Subjects were 717 boys who participated in a longitudinal study. Data collected at six time periods, beginning at age 10 years and covering a span of 8 years, were analyzed. Dysfunctional parental behavior patterns were defined as perceived harsh parenting practices, laxness of monitoring, and interparental conflict witnessed by the subject. Perpetrated psychological and physical abuse in dating, measured at ages 16 and 17 years, and delinquency, measured at age 15 years, served as dependent measures. All instruments were self-report questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis was used in data analysis. RESULTS: Only two variables contributed independently to dating violence. Boys who perceived laxness of monitoring from their parents in their late childhood and reported antisocial behavior at age 15 years, such as delinquency and substance abuse, were at risk of becoming involved in violent dating relationships at age 16 years. Harsh parenting practices from ages 10 to 12 years were also predictors of dating violence. CONCLUSIONS: A direct relationship was found between harsh parenting and antisocial behavior and later dating violence. No support was found for the mediation hypothesis of antisocial behavior, but an indirect influence was noted in association with monitoring.     

Disruptive behavior, peer association, and conduct disorder: testing the developmental links through early intervention

We tested three competing models regarding the role of deviant friends in the trajectory linking early disruptiveness with later conduct problems through the use of a preventive intervention program. The program was implemented during the second and third grade. One model predicted that the program would positively affect later conduct problems by facilitating nondeviant peer association during early adolescence. The second model predicted a direct impact of the program on later conduct problems through the reduction of early disruptiveness. The third model predicted an interaction between postintervention disruptiveness and association with less deviant friends. The results showed that the program's effects on later conduct problems were mediated by the reduction in disruptiveness and by the association with less deviant friends. However, the positive effect of associating with less deviant friends depended on whether children's disruptiveness had been reduced or not by their participation in the program, thus supporting the third model. We recommend using intervention studies to test developmental models.