Parent's psychopathological profiles and adolescent offspring's substance use disorders

Background: Substance use disorders (SUD) represent one of the most important public health problems which has an onset in adolescence. Although substantial data exist on adolescent substance use, studies examining the role of parental psychopathological profiles on adolescent offspring SUD are lacking. Thus, this study aimed to identify parental psychopathological profiles, and to examine the extent to which these profiles are associated with SUD in their offspring. Method: Our analytic sample comprised 5887 adolescents (48.60% boys; M = 15.07 years, SD = 1.46) from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), whose biological parents responded to the Parent Self-Administered Questionnaire. Parental psychopathological profiles were identified by means of latent class analysis. Results: Different psychopathological profiles were identified in fathers and mothers. Among fathers, two psychopathological profiles were found: normative class (low psychopathological symptoms and drug use) and high psychopathology class (high psychopathological symptoms and drug use). Among mothers, three psychopathological profiles were found: normative class (low psychopathological symptoms and drug use), high psychopathology class (high psychopathological symptoms and drug use), and suicide class (low psychopathological symptoms and drug use, but high on suicidal ideation or suicidal attempt). Father's high psychopathology profile was significantly associated with adolescent's illicit drug abuse. Mother's high psychopathology profile was significantly associated with adolescent's nicotine dependence, alcohol or illicit drug abuse. Conclusions: Family-based interventions should include skills training in reducing parental SUD and other mental health problems.

Automated summary

This study identified parental psychopathological profiles using latent class analysis and found that high psychopathology profiles in both fathers and mothers were significantly associated with different types of substance use disorders in their adolescent offspring. Therefore, family-based interventions focusing on reducing parental substance use disorders and other mental health issues are recommended.