The first wave of the Add Health study sampled adolescents when they were in 7th grade (12-13 years old). To be in a stronger position to speculate about the temporal nature of the associations between parent-child relationships and substance use, it would have been preferable to have assessments of these behaviours and indices of pubertal timing at an earlier age. This would give a clearer impression of whether the increased conflict and control that has been identified as characterising relationships between parents and early maturing girls (e.g. Weichold et al., 2003) is partly a response to girls’ behaviour (e.g. affiliation with an older peer group; substance use) and/or a concern by parents about the prospect of such behaviour occurring.
