Emerging ideas. Filial piety, substance use, adverse childhood experiences, and parental support: An intergenerational perspective

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Xiang Zhao,Isabella Perle,Heather M. Foran
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12857

BRIEF REPORT

Emerging ideas. Filial piety, substance use, adverse

childhood experiences, and parental support: An

intergenerational perspective

Xiang Zhao

1,2

|Isabella Perle

1

|Heather M. Foran

1

1

Institute of Psychology, University of

Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee,

Austria

2

School of Law, Psychology and Social Work,

Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

Correspondence

Xiang Zhao. School of Law, Psychology and

Social Work, Örebro University,

Fakultetsgatan 1, 702 81 Örebro, Sweden.

Email: xiang.zhao@oru.se

Abstract

Objective: The goal was to test the validity of the dual filial

piety model in Austria and examine how the reciprocal

and authoritarian filial piety interplay with familial factors

and one’s tobacco and alcohol use.

Background: Familial influences on substance use have

been identified. Being conceptualized as a Chinese con-

struct, research on filial piety and its interplay with sub-

stance use is insufficient in Western populations.

Method: Using a cross-sectional survey including filial piety,

familial variables, psychopathy traits, and alcohol use, we

collected data from 201 Austrian community members

(63.0% female; M

age

=35.15 years). Anotherage-stratified

random sample with 202 Austrians was also subsequently

recruited to replicate the original findings. Multiple correla-

tional analyses and confirmatory structural equation model-

ing were utilized on both samples, separately.

Results: The dual filial piety model was found as a robust

construct in both samples, with an acceptable scalability

(Cronbach’sα> .70).Althoughfilialpietywas

unassociated with substance use, earlier experiences and

psychopathy traits both showed consistent correlations

with substance use. Un-directional network analysis

among variables further revealed an association between

ever smoking experience and adverse childhood experi-

ences, which was replicated in the second sample.

Conclusions: This study highlights the utility of filial piety

in non-Eastern populations. Filial piety was associated

with substance use in one sample, but more research from

family and developmental psychology is needed given its

close relationships with childhood aversive experiences

and remembered parental support.

Received: 9 August 2021Revised: 8 January 2023Accepted: 15 January 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12857

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2023 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

3010 Family Relations. 2023;72:3010–3022.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare