Summary: Close and supportive parental relationships can help mitigate the genetic and environmental risk of developing alcohol use disorder for at-risk teens.

Source: State University of New York

For teens at elevated risk of developing alcohol use disorder (AUD), close relationships with parents can help mitigate their genetic and environmental vulnerability, a new study suggests.

The offspring of people with AUD are four times more likely than others to develop the disorder. Increasing evidence suggests that this heritable risk may be either amplified or mitigated by the quality of parenting.

Deficient parenting has been linked to a range of negative behavioral and psychiatric outcomes, while positive parenting appears critical for the development of higher-level social, emotional, and cognitive traits.

Typical neurological development during adolescence hones self-regulatory and executive function capacities (e.g., attention, inhibition, and decision-making), enabling adaptive responses to challenging situations. Deficiencies in these capacities underlie risk for developing substance use disorders.

Research has established that people with AUD and their offspring, during cognitive tasks, manifest low activity on two measures of quantifiable brain responses.

These — known as P3 and frontal theta (FT)—are important in self-regulation and executive function. Low levels of P3 and FT predict AUD development and can be conceptualized as a “neurodevelopmental lag.” Little is known about the potential for positive parenting, especially by fathers, to buffer against this outcome in teens at high risk for developing AUD.

For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigators explored associations between vulnerable young people’s P3, FT, risky drinking, and closeness with their mothers and fathers during adolescence.

Between 2004 and 2019, researchers recruited 1,256 young offspring, aged 12–22 at baseline, from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), a large, multigenerational family study on the genetic and environmental influences driving AUD.

These offspring were interviewed and their brain function was assessed biannually. The interviews covered participants’ substance use, mental health, and aspects of their home environments, including closeness with their mothers and fathers between ages 12-17. Their P3 and FT responses were measured using a visual task.

Researchers also collected data on participants’ binge drinking, impulsiveness (a personality trait known to affect alcohol use problems and relationships with parents), demographic characteristics, and parents’ alcohol and substance use. They used statistical analysis to explore associations between these factors.

Overall, greater closeness with fathers was associated with more robust P3 and FT activity in offspring, while closeness with mothers was linked to less binge drinking. Certain sex differences also emerged.

Closeness with fathers was linked to larger P3 in sons but not daughters; closeness with mothers was linked to less binge drinking among daughters but not sons.

This may reflect distinct roles of fathers and mothers in child and teen development, and differential parenting of boys versus girls. The findings held independent of other risk factors, including parents’ AUD, substance use problems, socioeconomic status, and offspring impulsiveness.

The study provides compelling evidence that warm, close relationships with parents during adolescence may help build resilience to problematic drinking in offspring negatively affected by family AUD and that this, in part, reflects improved neurocognitive functioning. Aspects of parenting affecting children’s risk of AUD include—and go beyond—drinking behaviors.

The researchers conclude that close bonds with parents during the key transitional period of adolescence can substantially attenuate offspring’s tendency toward risky behaviors and addictive disorders, with important sex differences.

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About this neurodevelopment, parenting, and AUD research news

Author: Gayathri Pandey
Source: State University of New York
Contact: Gayathri Pandey – State University of New York
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.
“Associations of parent–adolescent closeness with P3 amplitude, frontal theta, and binge drinking among offspring with high risk for alcohol use disorder” by Gayathri Pandey et al. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Abstract

Associations of parent–adolescent closeness with P3 amplitude, frontal theta, and binge drinking among offspring with high risk for alcohol use disorder

Background

Parents impact their offspring’s brain development, neurocognitive function, risk, and resilience for alcohol use disorder (AUD) via both genetic and socio-environmental factors. Individuals with AUD and their unaffected children manifest low parietal P3 amplitude and low frontal theta (FT) power, reflecting heritable neurocognitive deficits associated with AUD. Likewise, children who experience poor parenting tend to have atypical brain development and greater rates of alcohol problems. Conversely, positive parenting can be protective and critical for normative development of self-regulation, neurocognitive functioning and the neurobiological systems subserving them. Yet, the role of positive parenting in resiliency toward AUD is understudied and its association with neurocognitive functioning and behavioral vulnerability to AUD among high-risk offspring is less known. Using data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism prospective cohort (N = 1256, mean age [SD] = 19.25 [1.88]), we investigated the associations of closeness with mother and father during adolescence with offspring P3 amplitude, FT power, and binge drinking among high-risk offspring.

Methods

Self-reported closeness with mother and father between ages 12 and 17 and binge drinking were assessed using the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism. P3 amplitude and FT power were assessed in response to target stimuli using a Visual Oddball Task.

Results

Multivariate multiple regression analyses showed that closeness with father was associated with larger P3 amplitude (p = 0.002) and higher FT power (p = 0.01). Closeness with mother was associated with less binge drinking (p = 0.003). Among male offspring, closeness with father was associated with larger P3 amplitude, but among female offspring, closeness with mother was associated with less binge drinking. These associations remained statistically significant with father’s and mothers’ AUD symptoms, socioeconomic status, and offspring impulsivity in the model.

Conclusions

Among high-risk offspring, closeness with parents during adolescence may promote resilience for developing AUD and related neurocognitive deficits albeit with important sex differences.