NCJ Number
214421
Date Published
2005
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This Scottish longitudinal study examined the link between family functioning and substance use (cigarette smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, and illicit drug use) among youth between the ages of 12 and 17.
Abstract
The prevalence of cigarette smoking, drinking of alcoholic beverages, and the use of drugs increased among cohort members between the ages of 12 and 17. The findings suggest that education and counseling of parents in effective parenting techniques could reduce problem behavior by their children, including substance use. Girls were more likely than boys to smoke weekly from age 13 to 17, but there was little or no gender difference in weekly drinking or drug use at age 17. Family characteristics and parenting styles at age 15 predicted substance use at age 17. Excessive drinking and drug use by parents strongly predicted youth's involvement in smoking and drug use, but not drinking alcoholic beverages. Family factors linked to smoking, drinking, and drug use were high levels of parent-child conflict, lax parental monitoring of a youth's activities, and little leisure time spent in activities that involved all family members. Smokers were more likely to be girls from less affluent backgrounds; drinkers and drug users (at age 17), on the other hand, were more likely to be from more affluent backgrounds. This study drew on findings from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, a longitudinal research program that is exploring pathways into and out of offending for a cohort of approximately 4,300 youth who began secondary school in Edinburgh in 1998. The study uses self-report questionnaires, semistructured interviews, children's hearings records, teacher questionnaires, police and criminal statistics, a parent survey, and a geographic information system. 15 tables and 11 references