Affluent adolescents, depression, and drug use: the role of adults in their lives

Adolescence, Summer, 2005 by Kimber L. Bogard

Given past research that suggests affluent youth experience unusually high levels of depression and substance use and the importance of maternal closeness in mediating these adjustment outcomes (Luthar & Becker, 2002), the present study examined the potential of other adult social supports to buffer low parental attachment, leading to better outcomes for these youth. The results of this study contribute to the sparse empirical literature on the developmental outcomes of affluent youth. In particular, the data suggest that affluent youth, especially girls, are at an increased risk for depressive symptomology. The seventh graders in this sample were also more likely to report using drugs than a nationally representative sample of eighth graders (Monitoring the Future, 2000). In addition, there were only two buffering effects of adult social support on low parental closeness--one for girls and one for boys--protecting these youth from substance use. No buffering elfects were found for depression. The adult supports reported by youth who perceive low parental attachment, were associated with an exacerbation of depressive symptomology and drug use. This finding is contrary to much of the social support literature with non-affluent youth. These findings imply that affluent youth are an overlooked and potentially vulnerable population experiencing adjustment difficulties, with virtually no effective adult support figures to buffer them from isolation from their parents throughout their adolescent years.

The data show that affluent seventh graders are not only reporting higher levels of depressive symptomology and drug use than nationally representative samples (Table 4), but also these two indicators of real-adjustment are significantly related to each other for boys and girls. This finding suggests that affluent youth may be self-medicating their depression (Luthar & D'Avanzo, 1999). The association between depression symptomology and drug use has been shown to be unique to affluent adolescents in qualitative research by Way and colleagues (1994). Given the negative trajectories of depression and drug use on adult outcomes, this population may be sufficiently at-risk to warrant further attention.

Parental Closeness

The best predictor of adjustment for males and females was parental closeness. This finding is consistent with other studies reporting the importance of parents in child development from infancy to early childhood (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978), and throughout the adolescent years (Larson, Richards, Moneta, Hombeck, & Duckett, 1996; Steinberg, 1990). Petersen et al. (1991) reported significant protective effects of mother closeness on one domain of adolescent change in a suburban middle- to upper-income sample, leading to lower levels of maladjustment, and father closeness buffered against changes in three domains. In addition, Cauce et al., (1992) found that among a sample of 6th and 8th grade middle- to upper-income suburban adolescents, family support showed the strongest and most consistent association with adjustment.