title: Parental social support as a moderator of self-medication in adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the moderating effects of parenting on the temporal relationship between negative affect and subsequent alcohol use in adolescents as an indicator of self-medication. Specifically, we tested whether youth are more likely to self-medicate if they receive less parental social support.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a multi-method, multi-reporter strategy and an experience sampling paradigm to examine these mechanisms in an elevated-risk sample preparing for the transition to high school. Seventy-one adolescents and their parents completed home-based interviews and adolescents completed a 21-day experience sampling protocol in which they reported their alcohol use daily and their affect thrice daily.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parent-reported family communication, though no other parental support indicators, moderated the relation between daily negative affect and alcohol use. Plotting of interactions showed a greater likelihood of drinking on days characterized by greater negative affect only in adolescents with higher levels of parent-reported family communication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study offers tentative support for parental support as a moderator of the relation between daily negative affect and alcohol use. Parental support may be a response to alcohol use and self-medication in teens such that parents become more involved and open in talking with their teens when they notice these patterns of behavior.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-3270, United States. alisonr@email.unc.edu
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reimuller
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shadur
authors.forename: Andrea M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hussong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D012651:Self Medication / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States