Abstract
Findings from data originating in individualist Western cultures, such as the US, generally confirm a significant relation between parental rejection and substance use. However, little is known about individuals raised in patriarchal, collectivist, and predominantly religious non-Western societies. To build on prior research, we drew from Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory) to examine relations among parental (maternal and paternal) rejection, psychological maladjustment, and substance use disorder (SUD) in a sample of 960 young adult men in Pakistan. We used MANCOVAs and discriminant function analysis to compare 480 young men diagnosed with SUD with 480 young men without SUD on their memories of parental acceptance and rejection in childhood and on their current level of self-reported psychological maladjustment via the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) and Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ). Results showed that remembered paternal (but not maternal) rejection, and rejection-related psychological maladjustment were significantly associated with SUD, F(3, 953) = 1140.39, p < 0.001, λ = 0.218, η2 = 0.782. These two predictors distinguished men with SUD from men with lifelong abstinence with 97.3% accuracy. These results highlight the importance in Pakistan of memories of paternal (versus maternal) rejection, along with the specific form of psychological maladjustment known to be transculturally associated with parental rejection in the etiology of substance abuse.
Highlights
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Little is known about the relation between parental rejection and substance abuse outside of Western cultures.
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This study examined that relation in a patriarchal, collectivist, and predominantly Muslim culture.
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Fathers’ rejection and psychological maladjustment distinguished with 97.3% accuracy substance abusing men from men with lifelong abstinence.
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Ryan J. Watson acknowledges funding from NIDA, grant K01DA047918.
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Butt, M.M., Watson, R.J., Rohner, R.P. et al. Memories of Parental Rejection in Childhood and Current Psychological Maladjustment Predict Substance Abuse in a Collectivist Religious Country. J Child Fam Stud 31, 2608–2617 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02323-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02323-z