Perceived Parenting Styles and Substance Use Among College Students

Studies have shown a correlation between perceived parenting styles and substance use in adolescents and young adults in college (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001; Peckham-Patock & Morgan Lopez, 2006; Peckham-Patock & Morgan-Lopez, 2007).  These studies indicate that various parenting styles affect children in different ways and could potentialy shape an adolescent’s behavior. There are various types of parenting styles and each seems to have a distinctive impact on the behavioral outcome of a child. The question we are determined to answer is what parenting style correlates to greater substance use in young adults in college.

             Adalbjarnardottir and Hafsteinsson (2001) describe authoritative parents as being responsive, warm, supportive, and encouraging toward their children, yet demanding and firm with clear standards for their children’s behavior without being intrusive or restrictive. These parents respect the needs and often the wants of their children and lend themselves to any advice they feel they should impart on their children. Communication in general between parents and children is especially strong within their parenting style. Previous results have shown that the authoritative parenting style decreases the likelihood of adolescents experimenting with substances (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001). We hypothesize that college students who perceive their parents as authoritative will be less likely to use substances.

            Demanding and controlling parents with strict rules their children are not supposed to question characterize the authoritarian parenting style; these parents are not warm or responsive to the needs of their children (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001). There are conflicting results on how the authoritarian parenting style affects adolescent behavior. Adalbjarnardottir and Hafsteinsson (2001) determined that authoritarian parents are less able to prevent their adolescent from using certain substances as opposed to the authoritative parenting style. It seems that when presented with unconditional rules some adolescents may rebel against their parents and do things their own way, including deviant behavior and substance abuse. On the other hand, Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, and Dornbusch (1991) found that adolescents with authoritarian parents are also often more obedient and more apt to conforming to the standards of adults.  It would be interesting to see if rebellion against authoritarian parents is more prevalent in Iceland, where the Adolbjarnardottir and Hafsteinsson study was conducted, and less of an issue in the United States. We hypothesize that participants who rate their parents as authoritarian, and now away from their controlling home environment, will rebel and be more likely and willing to use substances.

            Indulgent parents are responsive, warm, and less demanding that authoritative parents, allowing considerable self-regulation and avoid confrontation (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001).  Although these parents are still responsive and warm toward their children, low demands and a tendency to avoid confrontation sometimes leads their adolescents to experiment with substances, though less likely than those adolescents raised in neglectful families.

            Neglectful parents are not responsive or demanding of their children, nor do they monitor, guide, or support them (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001). These parents typically do not care much what their child does nor relate to them in anyway. Communication between parents and child, if any, is usually very limited. As a result, adolescents in neglectful families are often the highest risk for substance use compared to all other parenting styles.

Methods

Participants

            Sixty-nine undergraduate students from a variety of majors at Indiana State University participated in this study. Some students were allowed extra credit points from their instructor for participating. Each student was given a questionnaire to complete.

Procedure

            To begin, participants were given an informed consent. A questionnaire was then be administered and instructions on how to complete the questionnaire given.

            The questionnaire consisted of five demographic questions: age, major, minor, grade level, and home zip code. Also present were questions relating to participants’ past, current, and desired drug use for a variety of different drugs (i.e. alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, inhalants, etc.). Finally, the questionnaire asked several questions that correspond to the various parenting styles described previously (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, neglectful). Examples of parenting style questions include; “my parents expected unquestioned obedience” (authoritarian), “my parents were demanding but reasonable” (authoritative), “my parents did not care or notice if I stayed out all night” (neglectful), and “my parents gave me what I wanted when I threw fits or whined” (indulgent). The independent variables in this study are perceived parenting styles. The dependent variables in this study are the amount of substances used. 

Upon completion of the questionnaire, participants were given a debriefing.   

Results

Of the initial 69 participants, 2 were excluded for not completing the Parenting Styles section of the questionnaire. A score of 4 or more on a specific parenting style classified that participant as having a certain parenting style (Authoritarian, Authoritative, Neglectful, Indulgent). Inconclusive Parenting Styles (scores of 4 or more on multiple categories) were determined for 4 participants and were also excluded from the study. A total of 9 participants were considered either Indulgent or Neglectful; due to lack of sample size, those participants and Parenting Styles were excluded from the study. 8 participants represented the Authoritarian Parenting Style and 46 participants represented the Authoritative Parenting Style.

Our main analysis focused on the relationship between the Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles and drug use during the Past 12 Months for those samples.

Past 12 Month Drug Use

            Overall drug use during the past 12 months was similar for both Authoritarian   (M = .988, SE = .238) and Authoritative (M = .752, SE = .103) Parenting Styles. No significant different was found between these two Parenting Styles and Past 12 Month drug use, t(52) = .886, p > .2. There were also no significant differences between Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles when compared to specific drugs (see Table 1) used in the past 12 months.

Discussion

            The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not there was a difference in drug use among college students who report having different parenting styles as an adolescent, more specifically the Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles. Our hypotheses was that students who report having the Authoritarian Parenting Style growing up would report more drug use once they left home to attend college and students who report having the Authoritative Parenting Style would be less likely to use drugs; our results do not support our hypotheses. Also, there is no significant difference between specific drug use and Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles (See Table 1). Our small sample size is not adequate for satisfying results in this study. Further research needs to be conducted and include a substantial larger number of participants from each Parenting Style. To recruit sufficient participants representative of each Parenting Style, the study needs to extend beyond the college setting and into the community. There mere fact that we only used college students shows that our results in no way represent the average public population.

Our results indicate, however, that parenting styles may impact whether or not an adolescent attends college. For example, our results indicate that fewest students reported having Indulgent or Neglectful Parenting Styles, which could indicate that smothering a child or ignoring a child might detour them from attending college later in life. The Authoritative Parenting Style seemed to be most prevalent among college students, which may indicate that those children who are able to communicate effectively with their parents are more likely to attend college. More studies should be directed toward whether or not certain Parenting Styles are linked to college attendance among children. The results from those studies would be most beneficial when helping parents determine how to be a better parent.

In conclusion, this research has shown that our sample from Indiana State University does not show a significant difference in drug use between Parenting Styles. Further research on this question should be conducted in the general public so that each Parenting Style is represented by a larger number of participants. This study has, however, raised an interesting issue of whether or not certain Parenting Styles determine the likelihood of an adolescent attending college.

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References

Adalbjarnardottir, Sigrun, & Hafsteinsson, Leifur G. (2001). Adolescents’

perceived parenting styles and their substance use: Concurrent and longitudinal analyses. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11(4), 401-423. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.indstate.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.

ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2001-10151-004&site=ehost-live

Lamborn, Susue D., Mounts, Nina S., Steinberg, Laurence, & Dornbusch,

Sanford M. (1991). Patterns of competence and adjustment among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent and neglectful families. Child Development, 62(5), 1049-1065. doi: 10.2307/1131151

Paxton, Raheem J., Valois, Robert F., & Drane, J. Wanzer. (2007). Is there a

relationship between family structure and substance use among public middle school students? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 593-605. doi:10.1007/s10826-006-9109-y

Peckham-Patock, Julie A., & Morgan-Lopez, Antonio A. (2006). College

drinking behaviors: Meditational links between parenting styles, impulse control, and alcohol-related outcomes. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20(2), 117-125. doi:10.1037/0893-164X.20.2.11

Peckham-Patock, Julie A., & Morgan-Lopez, Antonio A. (2007). College

drinking behaviors: Meditational links between parenting styles, parental

bonds, depression, and alcohol-related outcomes. Psychology of Addictive

     Behaviors, 21(3), 297-306. doi:10.1037/0893-164X.21.3.297

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Table 1

Specific Drug Use Between Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles

	Authoritarian		Authoritative
Measure	M	SD	M	SD	F(1, 52)	p
Cigarettes	2.38	3.068	1.85	2.828	.231	.633
Tobacco	1.00	2.449	.63	1.323	.401	.529
Alcohol	3.50	2.777	3.46	2.656	.002	.966
Pot	2.38	3.068	1.17	2.234	1.760	.190
Heroin	.00	.00	.00	.00	.00	.00
Cocaine	.25	.707	.09	.468	.684	.412
Meth	.00	.00	.02	.149	.175	.677
Hallucinogens	.12	.354	.02	.147	2.039	.159
Inhalants	.00	.00	.00	.00	.00	.00
Rx	.25	.463	.28	.886	.010	.920

Note: Specific drug use is from the past 12 months.