Risk, resiliency, and protective factors identified by prior research are important constructs for prevention of adolescents' use of alcohol and other drugs. These constructs remain relatively robust through the adolescent years in predicting AOD use. However, there is a need to explore more carefully how parents and older adolescents perceive and implement the risk, resiliency and protective factors. The major goals of this study are to build upon prior research by bringing more in-depth understandings to behaviors related to the existing risk, resilience, and protective constructs.
Our specific aims are as follows:
Specific Aim 1 : For older adolescents, to illustrate and categorize descriptive accounts of parental/family actions of each of the risk, protective, and resilience constructs identified in the existing models for adolescent AOD use (e.g., parental monitoring, disciplinary practices, parenting management style, family bonding, family rituals, religiousness, availability/access).
Specific Aim 2 : To compare the descriptive accounts provided by parents and older adolescents of the constructs in Specific Aim 1 and to determine the overlap (between parents/adolescents) and to examine the differences in thematic content expressed by parents and adolescents when the target adolescent is female vs. male.
Specific Aim 3 : To """"""""map"""""""" these qualitative findings to the existing instruments that measure these constructs. Qualitative interviews (that include some closed-ended questions) will be conducted with 100 families (both parents and one 16-17 year old adolescent). This sample will be drawn from a prior funded study that sampled adolescents and parents and with data from three prior waves regarding adolescent AOD use, and closed-ended questions on families. This study is significant because qualitative research can provide rich or """"""""thick"""""""" descriptive responses that participants give to open-ended questions and provide a real world view of life as they experience it. We are proposing that there may be different nuances that have emerged in the risk, resilience, and protective constructs. We are also proposing that in-depth explorations could give richer meaning to our existing measures, even if we discover, that we need not change a particular measure to actually provide us with our measurement models we are investigating. This information would substantively contribute to the practical world by providing new information for family prevention programs by providing: (1) A better understanding of how varied the content of these parental behaviors are; 2) How differently the adolescent and the parents perceive these behaviors; 3) How this content of parental behaviors dynamically interact between parents and adolescents. ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
| Bourdeau, Beth; Miller, Brenda; Vanya, Magdalena et al. (2012) Defining Alcohol-Specific Rules Among Parents of Older Adolescents: Moving Beyond No Tolerance. J Fam Commun 12:111-128 |
| Bourdeau, Beth; Miller, Brenda A; Duke, Michael R et al. (2011) Parental Strategies for Knowledge of Adolescents' Friends: Distinct from Monitoring? J Child Fam Stud 20:814-821 |
