NCJ Number
219344
Journal
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: 2007 Pages: 63-87
Date Published
2007
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Using data from a household survey of drug use in Washington State, this study examined whether strong attachments between drug-using parents and their adolescent children inhibited drug use, as social-control theory predicts, or increased it, as the social-development model predicts.
Abstract
The study found that parental drug use interacted with attachment to fathers to increase the chances that adolescent children would use both licit and illicit drugs. The study's parental drug-use scale was also consistent with the social-development model, because it measured the adolescent's direct observation of parental drug use (e.g., seeing a parent use drug or alcohol early in the morning or observing them consistently drunk or high). This suggests that drug-using parents may indicate to their children that substance use is acceptable adult behavior. In terms of theoretical development, this study contributes to a growing body of research that indicates social bonds are more multidimensional than social-control theory suggests. Current study findings confirm earlier tests of bonding to deviant parents, which showed that strong attachments to deviant others increased deviant behavior rather than prevented or reduced it. Data were obtained from the adult and adolescent Washington State Needs Assessment Household Survey, which was conducted in 1994 in order to assess the need for State-funded substance abuse treatment services. Households were included in the sampling frame for the adolescent survey if the household contained one or more children between the ages of 12 and 17. The dependent variables were adolescent use of illicit and licit drugs. The independent variables measured were demographics, attachment to parents, parental drug use, and other risk/protective factors. 6 tables, 4 notes, and 27 references