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Using the actor-partner interdependence model to understand the relationship between parent-adolescent dyads' health
1Tufts University, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, 574 Boston Ave, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Purpose:
Parents' and adolescents' substance use (SU) are positively correlated and their health literacy (HL) are also positively correlated. Research also support a strong relationship between HL and health behaviors. HL is the functional, interactive, and critical skills for finding, understanding, and applying health information in health decision-making. Though studies connect parents' and adolescent' SU via parent norms, availability of substances, and parenting, little is known about how adolescents' HL in the presence of parents' SU might affect adolescents' SU. This study explored the interdependent relationship between parent-adolescent dyads' HL and SU METHODS: A convenience sample of parent-adolescent dyads (n = 300) were recruited from Qualtrics Panel to complete surveys on their HL and health behaviors. Descriptive statistics were computed and data were analyzed using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model.
Results:
After controlling for covariates and partner effects, parents' critical HL was negatively related to their binge drinking, while adolescents' functional, interactive, and composite HL were negatively related to their cigarette smoking, vaping, and binge drinking (actor effects). After controlling for covariates and actor effects, adolescents' functional HL was negatively related to parents' cigarette smoking and their interactive and composite HL were negatively related to their parents' cigarette smoking, vaping, and binge drinking.
Conclusions:
The interdependence of parent-adolescent HL and SU vary by SU and HL type.
Implications For Practice:
Our findings suggest that, in addition to targeting parent SU norms, interventions to augment all core components of adolescents' HL may be necessary to reduce or delay adolescents' SU.
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