AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENT AND ADOLESCENT MARIJUANA USE VIA GENERALIZED ESTIMATING EQUATION METHODOLOGY

Although longitudinal designs are uniquely suited to the study of indi vidual change over time, standard multivariate statistical methods oft en perform poorly when faced with common characteristics of longitudin al data such as correlated observations and missing observations. The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate the utility of a gener alized estimating equations approach to the analysis of longitudinal d ata, while investigating the role of parent marijuana use on lagged ch anges in the marijuana use of their adolescent children over a 6-year period. In addition, the existence of significant trends in use was ex amined. Findings indicated that, over time, parental use of marijuana was positively related to their adolescent's use of the same substance , although there were significant differences in the strength of the r elationship across gender and age groups. Results are discussed with r eference to the importance and utility of the generalized estimating e quations approach to the analysis of longitudinal data.