Individual traits and family contexts predicts sons' externalizing behavior and preliminary relative risk ratios for conduct disorder and substance use disorder outcomes

FRANÇAIS :
Un modèle théorique pour étudier l'étiologie des conduites de dépendance aux drogues chez les jeunes a été décrit. Les facteurs de risque, selon le DSM-III-R existent principalement au sein de la famille : mésentente entre les parents, absence de communication parent-enfant, pression des parents... Ces facteurs sont évalués à partir d'échelles statistiques. Si les facteurs de risque sont importants vers 10-12 ans, la probabilité de troubles du comportement et de conduites addictives vers 16 ans est plus grande.
ENGLISH :
An ontogenetic framework for elucidating the etiology of substance use disorders (SUD) requires identifying how individual traits and family contexts combine to increase risk for SUD outcomes. In this study, we examine individual traits in family context to identify processes that account for the relationship between fathers' SUD + status and sons' externalizing behaviors. Results obtained from SUD + (n = 89) and SUD - (n = 139) families show that fathers' abusive propensities toward their sons mediated the relationship between fathers' SUD + status and sons' externalizing behavior scale (EBS) scores 2 years later. Moreover, individual traits, family contextual variables and deviant peer affiliations accounted for 58% of the variance on sons' EBS scores. Also, high risk cluster (HRC) and low risk cluster (LRC) memberships were derived from cluster analyses of the continuous risk factor scores that predicted sons' EBS scores. Preliminary relative risk ratios show that sons classified into the HRC at age 10-12 were at greater risk for DSM-III-R conduct disorder and SUD outcomes at age 16 than sons assigned to the LRC, SUD + or SUD - groups. Implications for selected family-based prevention initiatives are presented. (Author' s abstract)