Parental monitoring and cannabis use: Epidemiological evidence from two prospective cohort studies

Background. Cannabis is one of the most commonly used psychoactive drugs in the world. The adept level of parental monitoring during childhood and adolescence is one potential intervention target for preventing cannabis use or delaying its onset.;Aims. The overall aim of this dissertation is to estimate the potential short- and long-term impact of parental monitoring on cannabis. The first study (Chapter Three) aims to estimate, prospectively, the influence of parental monitoring assessed at age 11 on cannabis initiation before age 18 years. Next, (Chapter Four) the goal is to estimate the suspected influence of level of parental monitoring assessed at age 11 on level of drug use at age 17 years, while simultaneously testing paths through levels of drug use and affiliation with drug using peers at age 11 years. The final study (Chapter Five) aims to test the prospective association that might link level of parental monitoring with subsequent recently active cannabis smoking, and to examine a potential meditational influence of level of deviant peer affiliation.;Methods. Data for the first two studies are from a longitudinal study of a 1983--1985 birth cohort from southeast Michigan (n=823). Data for the third study come from a prospective cohort of students from an urban public school system in the mid-Atlantic United States entering primary school in 1985 and 1986 (n=2,311). For all three studies drug use was assessed via standardized, self-reported measures and parental monitoring was assessed via a 10-item standardized child-reported scale. In the first study, Poisson regression with robust error variances was used to estimate the suspected predictive association that links parent monitoring at age 11 and cannabis use up to age 17. The next study used a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to estimate paths of parental monitoring influence, with levels of affiliation with drug using peers and drug use modeled as latent variables. The final study applied a generalized estimating equations (GEE) logistic regression approach to estimate the association between prior parental monitoring and subsequent recent cannabis use. SEM was used to examine the potential mediating influence of level of deviant peer affiliation.;Results. In the first study, higher parental monitoring at age 11 signaled a reduced risk of cannabis initiation from ages 11 to 17 years (adjusted estimated relative risk = 0.96; 95% confidence interval = 0.94, 0.98). Results from the second study indicated that level of parental monitoring was related to levels of affiliation with drug using peers (p<0.05) and drug use at age 11 (p<0.05) and predicted levels of drug use at age 17 (p<0.05). In the third study, higher levels of prior parental monitoring significantly predicted lower odds of recently active cannabis use (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.96; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.92, 0.99). Level of deviant peer affiliation did not appreciably mediate the association between previous level of parental monitoring and subsequent cannabis use.;Conclusions. These findings from prospective research shed new light and help confirm the theory that parenting and familial characteristics might exert long-lasting influences on a child's risk of initiation and use of illegal drugs. Implications for prevention and future directions for research are discussed.