Browsing by Author "Suomela, Essi"

Negative child-rearing environment has been associated with substance use in previous studies. Although, temperament has been shown to moderate the effects of parenting, only few studies have taken this into account when examining the relationship between family environment and substance use. Participants (n=1878; 56,8 % women) were selected from the longitudinal Young Finns study that began in 1980. The association between temperament trait emotionality and three child rearing attitudes dimensions (i.e., tolerance, significance and discipline) with alcohol consumption and smoking were examined using multinomial and logistic regression analysis. Higher emotionality and negative child rearing attitudes were associated with increased risk of smoking. Interaction between emotionality and tolerance was found: negative tolerance was associated with increased risk of drinking among boys who were high in emotionality. The results indicate that parenting has far-reaching consequences for substance use. The effect is partly moderated by emotionality, which helps to understand why people in the same kind of growth environment drift into different pathways.