A significant association for only unhealthy eating was for lower authoritarian parenting style and higher self-efficacy of unhealthy eating, which is consistent with previous literature testing these relationships in similar contexts . Greater perceived risks of harms of unhealthy eating and marijuana use were associated with higher coherence and higher worry of unhealthy eating and marijuana use. These findings are consistent with, and extend, prior research on the influence of higher perceived risks of the harms of marijuana use in predicting higher worry of marijuana use , and now can extend to unhealthy eating. For unhealthy eating, another significant association included more negative prototypes of unhealthy eating and higher worry of unhealthy eating. Relatedly, negative prototypes have been shown to predict higher worry about one’s child using marijuana . Interestingly, there was not an association between negative prototypes of marijuana users and worry of marijuana use in this study, however, there was a positive association with higher coherence of marijuana use. Parental worry of unhealthy eating and marijuana use were positively associated with stronger intention motivations to discuss these behaviors with their child. This adds to prior research of worry in motivating a protective response , e.g., discouraging marijuana use . For unhealthy eating, there was also an unpredicted association between authoritative parenting style with intentions to discuss unhealthy eating with child. While for marijuana use, vertical growing weed higher coherence was associated with discussion intentions of marijuana use, as well as an unpredicted association with more parent-child communication, and greater levels of perceived risks and coherence of marijuana use.

These findings provide further support for the positive relationship of intention motivations in predicting discussions of unhealthy eating and marijuana use. There was also a significant association between higher worry of unhealthy eating with higher willingness to discuss unhealthy eating with one’s child. Additionally, unpredicted associations of higher levels of parent-child communication and perceived risks of harms of unhealthy eating, and more negative prototypes of unhealthy eating were positively associated with discussion willingness of unhealthy eating. For marijuana use, there was also an unpredicted association for higher self efficacy of marijuana use with higher willingness to discuss marijuana use with child. For intentions of unhealthy eating and marijuana use, there was a positive association with past discussion of unhealthy eating and marijuana use. These findings are in line with the substantial body of evidence that intentions are associated with health related behaviors . The predicted path of willingness did not associate with past discussion of unhealthy eating or marijuana use. Previously, willingness has been found to predict risky health behaviors , however, this might not extend to the behavior of discussing unhealthy eating and marijuana use with one’s child. Other studies have also found this to be true for willingness and discussion behavior path for marijuana use . One possibility is that parents may be more likely to participate in premeditated discussions with their child about health-related behaviors as compared with impulsive discussions . There were also unpredicted associations of higher levels of authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, and more negative prototypes of unhealthy eating with past discussion of unhealthy eating with child. While, greater perceived risks of harms and coherence of marijuana use were associated with past discussion of marijuana use with child.

These present study findings can possibly serve as useful standards for developing discussion tools that include measures of parenting styles and PWM framework factors, in an effort to assist discussions of unhealthy eating and marijuana use with one’s child. Since, attachment styles did not predict any of the behaviors, it will not be included in the parenting-framed messages developed in Study 2 or the tools developed in Study 3. Although, they did have associations with parenting styles , and this association will be tested with correlational analyses in Study 2. These results support the potential utility of framing discussion tools with authoritative parenting style, but given that authoritarian style was also associated with motivations for discussion behaviors, it could be that an authoritarian-framed message might be helpful as well. Therefore, all three of the parenting styles will be further tested in Study 2 with youth. Lastly, this study evaluates child-age group differences in discussions of unhealthy eating and marijuana use . Discussion levels varied by child’s age, with parents of younger children discussing unhealthy eating, and parents of older children discussing marijuana use. With support of our hypothesis, it could be that parents may not discuss unhealthy eating with older kids, as they may feel that they are independent and can make their own decisions . However, adolescents across all age groups are likely to eat unhealthy , and respond well to recommendations on diet . In contrast, parents may be less likely to think that their children use marijuana at younger ages. In recent years, marijuana initiation is more likely to begin at younger ages with a decrease in perceived likelihood of harm of marijuana use . Given the changing landscape of marijuana legalization, it is imperative to continue to consider all age groups. Therefore, implementing a discussion tool that could provide parents with the necessary guidance to engage in communication about risky behaviors, regardless of their child’s age group, is an important first step.

Strengths of the present study include its focus on parent motivations to discuss unhealthy eating and marijuana use and its contributions to further inclusion of the parenting styles and revised PWM factors in motivating discussions about these behaviors, in a sample of parents in the United States. The association of parenting styles in motivating protective responses is essential to consider for development of discussion tools, and will be further tested in Study 2 and 3. Another strength is the use of MTurk, which has become a popular method used for recruiting large heterogeneous samples such as parents of adolescents from across the nation as has been demonstrated in several published psychological studies . Limitations of this study require consideration when interpreting the results and point to directions for future research. First, the results may not be representative of all parents across the nation or in other countries, as it consisted predominantly of NonHispanic White and well-educated participants. Second, the findings may not be generalizable to all parents, particularly as we focused primarily on parents of children ages 10 to 17 years old. Further research utilizing random samples of parents in the United States is needed especially with the changing landscape of marijuana legalization laws. A last limitation is that discussion behavior is measured as a past behavior rather than future behavior. However, the observed relationships of predictor variables with past behavior are likely to hold for future behavior as an individual’s behavior is fairly consistent, and typical behaviors, are more predictive than uncommon behaviors . Nevertheless, additional research is needed to test the predictive associations of the PWM factors on discussion behavior in the future.This chapter begins with a description of Study 2 including aims and hypotheses; methods ; discussion of manipulations ; detailed list of measures; overview of statistical analyses; results, discussion, and conclusion of study. Results from Study 1 suggested that parent motivations to discuss unhealthy eating and marijuana use with their child may be influenced by their parenting dynamics , and other cognitive factors . There is a need to develop a discussion tool that could be used by parents to engage in discussions with their children centered on these behaviors. One of the unique aspects of this tool is the inclusion of parenting-framed messages that was developed using characteristics of the parenting styles of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive . These messages were assessed in order to figure out which parenting framed message was rated most effective to be used in the discussion tool for Study 3 with parents. The parenting-framed messages were developed by an attribute list of the three parenting styles so that each characteristic was addressed with each respective message . Prior to testing these parenting-framed messages with parents, commercial cannabis growers it is important to test the acceptability of these messages with youth. The focus is on youth ages 18 to 20 years old, as this age group is close to minors. More so, they will better articulate responses to parenting-framed messages with a more enhanced perspective as compared to a younger age group.

Importantly, Study 2 tests the receptivity by a child to the parenting-framed message based on the perceived parenting styles of one’s parent, whereas Study 3 tests the receptivity of the parent to use the discussion tools of unhealthy eating and marijuana use based on the parent’s perceived parenting style. This study also tests the associations of the attachment styles and parenting styles as perceived about one’s parent. Therefore, in Study 2 we assessed the parenting styles of one’s parent, while in Study 1 and Study 3 we assessed parenting styles with one’s child. Since, there may be variation across parent and child populations with regards to reports on parents’ parenting styles, it was important to test them both. The study aims were to: test the associations of the perceived attachment styles with a parent and the perceived parenting styles of the parent; test the associations of attachment styles and parenting styles on perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, motivations to discuss behavior, and discussion similarity; and test the relationship of parenting-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use on perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, motivations to discuss behavior, and discussion similarity. For Aim 1, we tested hypotheses that: lower attachment anxiety and lower attachment avoidance will be associated with higher authoritative parenting style; and higher attachment anxiety and higher attachment avoidance will be associated with higher authoritarian parenting style and permissive parenting style. For Aim 2, we tested hypotheses that: lower attachment anxiety, lower attachment avoidance, and higher authoritative parenting style will be associated with higher perceived effectiveness, higher perceived interpretability, higher motivations to discuss behavior, and higher discussion similarity for authoritative messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use compared to lower authoritarian parenting style and lower permissive parenting style; and higher attachment anxiety, higher attachment avoidance, higher authoritarian parenting style, and higher permissive parenting style will be associated with higher perceived effectiveness, higher perceived interpretability, higher motivations to discuss behavior, and higher discussion similarity for authoritarian and permissive messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana compared to lower authoritative parenting style. For Aim 3, we tested hypotheses that: higher perceived effectiveness, higher perceived interpretability, higher motivations to discuss behavior, and higher discussion similarity will be associated with higher authoritative parenting-framed messages for unhealthy eating and marijuana use compared to lower authoritarian parenting-framed messages and lower permissive parenting-framed messages; and these message differences will be stronger for authoritative parenting style than for authoritarian parenting style or permissive parenting style.2.1. Participants The university’s institutional review board approved the study protocol. Participants were recruited through the university online research participation site to undergraduate students who are between the ages of 18 to 20 years old at the University of California, Merced. In total, 393 participants provided informed consent and were able to complete the study. Overall, participants were approximately 19 years of age on average and predominantly Hispanic with over 72% identifying as women and lower classmen . 2.2. Design The study utilized a 3 X 2 within-subjects design, with parenting-framed messages and the conditions of unhealthy eating and marijuana use. After completing measures of demographic and personal characteristics, and unhealthy eating and marijuana use, participants viewed a series of parenting-framed messages through counterbalancing. 2.3. Procedure Participants responded to questions about measures of demographic and personal characteristics, unhealthy eating and marijuana use, attachment and parenting styles, and parenting-framed messages. Participants viewed a total of six messages, and then rated the messages on perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, and motivations to discuss the behavior, and discussion similarity. The six messages were counterbalanced, with every participant viewing all three parenting-style message within in each of the two behavior conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two behavior conditions , which were presented in random order to each group. For instance, one group was tested with unhealthy eating followed by marijuana use, and the second group was tested with marijuana use followed by unhealthy eating, and vice versa. Following the survey completion, participants read a brief explanation of the study and received links to websites of national health organizations with information about unhealthy eating and marijuana use. They then received SONA credit for their participation in the survey.