NCJ Number
163948
Date Published
1996
Length
114 pages
Annotation
This report examines some implications of family living arrangements for substance use among American adolescents.
Abstract
The study which was the basis for this report used data from approximately 22,000 respondents aged 12-17 in the combined 1991, 1992, and 1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The report reviews the literature on family structure and adolescents and describes measures and methods used for the study. The report's two main chapters present data on the distribution of adolescent substance use, dependence, and need for illicit drug abuse treatment by family structure, gender, and race/ethnicity; and multivariate models of adolescent substance use, dependence, and need for illicit drug abuse treatment. The study found that adolescents living with two biological or adoptive parents are significantly less likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs, or to report problems associated with use, than adolescents not living with two biological or adoptive parents. Another major finding was that the effects of family structure after statistically adjusting for other explanatory variables are as large as or larger than the unadjusted effects. Notes, tables, references, appendix