Links between Psychotropic Substance Use and Sensation Seeking in a Prevalence Study: The Role of Some Features of Parenting Style in a Large Sample of Adolescents

Aims. The objectives of the study were to (a) investigate the prevalence risk of current drug users and (b) explore the association between parental monitoring, adolescent-parent relationship, family structure, financial status, and sensation-seeking and psychotropic substance use. Methods. Data were drawn from the 2002 Italian student population survey of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs. The sample size was 10,790 adolescents, aged 15–19 years. Multivariate logistic analyses were performed. Findings. The prevalence of users was 27.3% (34.2% males; 21.6% females). Single-parent and reconstructed families were related to the greatest likelihood of substance use. A medium financial status and, for females, a satisfying relationship with father were protective factors. Probability of engaging in risk-taking behavior increased when parental knowledge decreased. Exploring deeper how parental monitoring could modify the relation between different traits of sensation seeking and substances use revealed the following: “thrill and adventure seeking,” within the case of a good monitoring, can help against the use of substances; “boredom susceptibility” is not associated with drug use, except when parental monitoring is weak. Conclusions. Specific subdimensions, associated with substance use, may be more amenable to prevention than general interventions on sensation-seeking personality. Family is the context that could promote health education. 1. Introduction Drug use is a widespread and expanding epidemic among high school students [1–4]. Substance-related behavior in adolescence is influenced by temperamental, psychological, and social factors. Social environmental factors include also parenting styles and the related parental risk behaviors modeling [5–7]. Personality characteristics such as SS are strongly associated with drug, tobacco, and alcohol use and misuse in adolescents [8, 9] so that the assessment of it could be particularly useful in regard to prevention of substances abuse in teenagers. Sensation seeking, a personality trait with biological roots, is associated with the need for novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences [10]. Regarding potential risk factors, it has been suggested that family structure could mediate the expression of temperamental risk of substance use behavior [11]. During the last decade, family structure has changed. Between 2000 and 2010, in Italy, for every 1000 marriages the