The Effect of Home Environment on Adolescent Substance Use and Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

We used data from the screening phase and first two waves of a panel study to compare the home environments of families with a substance-abusing parent, families with a depressed parent, and families in a comparison group. We diagnosed substance use disorder and affective disorder by administering the Structural Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (third edition, revised) to each participating parent. The data suggest that families in which parents display a substance use disorder are very similar to those in which parents suffer from affective disorder, in terms of negative life events and lower family cohesion. The results of structural equation modeling indicate that parental substance use disorder and parental affective disorder influence adolescent substance use and depressive symptoms. In addition, parental substance use disorder has a direct influence on adolescent substance use at the time the first-wave data were collected, but this effect does not persist over time.