The purposes of the present study are as follows: (1) to examine the extent to which easy father communication and easy mother communication are associated with substance use in a diverse and nationally representative sample of male and female adolescents;(2) to investigate the unique associations among males and females; and (3) to evaluate whether these patterns are consistent across cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and marijuana use. Based on previous studies, we first hypothesized that easy father and mother communication are protective for adolescent substance use, especially in females. Second, we expected that the mother-daughter dyad is the most protective pair as compared to mother-son, father-daughter and father-son dyads. Third, as inferred in a previous study on parental control and adolescent substance use (Choquet et al., 2008), we predicted that the inverse relationship between parent-child communication and substance use is significant for tobacco and cannabis use but not for alcohol use. Clarifying gender-specific variations in the associations between parent-child communication and three important adolescent substance use outcomes could provide important information to guide prevention and intervention efforts, particularly among female adolescents (Schinke, Cole, & Fang 2009).
