Brief Report: Impact of Child Problem Behaviors and Parental Broad Autism Phenotype Traits on Substance Use Among Parents of Children with ASD

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2014-10, Vol.44 (10), p.2621-2627
• Main Authors: Wade, Jordan L., Cox, Neill Broderick, Reeve, Ronald E., Hull, Michael
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcoholism; Anxiety Disorders; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Behavior Problems; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Brief Report; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child Behavior; Child Behavior - psychology; Child Behavior Disorders - epidemiology; Child Behavior Disorders - genetics; Child Behavior Disorders - psychology; Child clinical studies; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - epidemiology; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - genetics; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - psychology; Coping; Databases, Factual - trends; Developmental disorders; Down Syndrome; Drinking; Exhibits; Fathers; Female; Humans; Infantile autism; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Mothers; Neurosciences; Parenting Styles; Parents; Parents - psychology; Pediatrics; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Phenotype; Predictor Variables; Psychiatry; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Health; Resistance (Psychology); School Psychology; Self Report; Smoking; Substance Abuse; Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Substance-Related Disorders - genetics; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-014-2132-8

Using data from the Simons Simplex Collection, the present study examined the impact of child externalizing behavior and parental broad autism phenotype traits on substance use among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder ( n  = 2,388). For both fathers and mothers, child externalizing behaviors predicted tobacco use (OR = 1.01 and OR = 1.02, respectively), whereas rigidity increased risk of tobacco use for fathers (OR = 1.29) but not mothers. Additionally, among mothers, child externalizing behaviors increased risk of illegal substance use (OR = 1.04), whereas maternal rigidity decreased risk of alcohol use (OR = .83). Collectively, results suggest that child externalizing behaviors and parental rigidity may have differing impacts on the types of substances used by parents.