Intergenerational congruence in adolescent onset of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use

We examined alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana (ATM) use onset across early to late adolescence in a sample of fathers and their offspring. We tested a theory of developmental congruence in polysubstance use, or the extent to which fathers' ATM use onset in early adolescence increased risk for earlier ATM onset by their offspring. Average rates of adolescent ATM use onset were also compared across generations, which may reflect intergenerational discontinuity and secular trends. Children (n = 223, 44% boys) and their fathers (n = 113; originally recruited as boys at neighborhood risk for delinquency) contributed repeated prospective self-reports of their ATM use across adolescence (as late as age 18 years). Mothers' ATM use (retrospective) through age 18 years was available for 205 children. Data were analyzed using discrete-time survival mixture analysis. Compared with their fathers, boys and girls showed later onset for tobacco use, and girls showed later onset alcohol use. Developmental congruence was partially supported: Children showed earlier ATM use onset if their fathers were assigned to the early adolescent polysubstance use onset class, compared to the late-adolescent predominantly alcohol and tobacco onset class; mothers' ATM use in adolescence attenuated this effect. Consistent with national secular trends, rates of adolescent onset tobacco and alcohol use declined across generations, whereas marijuana use onset did not. However, there was intergenerational transmission of risk for early polysubstance use onset. Prevention that delays early substance use may have early life span effects as well as transgenerational implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).