Parents and Family

Over the past two decades the research base available to program designers in the fields of alcohol and other drug abuse has expanded fairly rapidly from the classic studies of the efficacy of school curricula in the early 1980s, to an examination of the comprehensive community-based approaches in the late 1980s, and to the risk and resiliency studies of the early 1990s.

Current studies now routinely recognize that single-focused approaches to prevention must be used in coordination with programs that will increase the protective factors and reduce the risk factors surrounding the child. These factors include the child's personal, familial, and environmental background.

A large body of research findings shows that the family contributes both risk and protective factors to the lives of adolescents; it affects both vulnerability and resilience to drug abuse (NIDA Notes, May/June 1996).

The latest in a long line of studies affirming the role of parents and families in adolescents' life choices is by Resnick et al. (1997), who review adolescent risk behaviors that pose the main threat to adolescents' health. The objective of their study was to identify risk and protective factors at the family, school, and individual levels as they relate to four domains of adolescent health and morbidity: emotional health, violence, substance use, and sexuality.

Resnick and colleagues studied over 12,000 adolescents, grades 7 through 12, and interviewed them at home as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The key finding of the study, which appeared in a recent issue of JAMA and which was widely reported this past fall in the popular press and on television, was that being connected with their parents and families and with their schools helped protect teens against every health risk behavior measure that was studied, with the exception of pregnancy.

Parent-family connectedness was measured through variables such as closeness to parent, perceived caring by the parent, satisfaction with the relationship with the parent, and feelings of being loved and wanted by family members. Other measures included the number of different activities engaged in with the mother or father during the past week; the physical presence of the parent before and after school, at bedtime, or at dinner; the parent's expectations for the teen to complete high school or college; and suicide attempts and/or completions by family members in the past year. School connectedness was measured through assessing students' perceptions that teachers treated them fairly, degree of closeness to people at school and feeling part of the school; assessment of prejudice among fellow students; average daily attendance; estimated dropout rate by grade in school; type of school (public, parochial, technical, etc.); average class size; number of teachers with master's degree; proportion of students who are college bound; and percentage of parents involved with the parent/teacher association (PTA). On the individual level, the study looked at general measures of self-esteem, religious identity, same-sex attraction or behavior, perceived risk of untimely death, number of hours of paid work during the school year,perception of appearing younger or older than classmates, grades repeated, and grade point average.

Resnick and colleagues concluded that, across all domains of risk, the role of parents and family in shaping the health of adolescents is critical. The protective role that perceived parental expectations play regarding adolescents' school attainment is a correlate of health and healthy behavior. Although the physical presence of a parent in the home at key times reduces risk (and especially substance use), of more significance is parental connectedness (e.g., feelings of warmth, love, and caring from parents). The home environment also helps shape health outcomes. Homes where adolescents have easy access to guns, alcohol, tobacco, and illicit substances contribute to the adolescent's increased risk of suicidality, involvement in interpersonal violence, and substance use.

Parenting IS Prevention Training of Trainers Workshop, 1998	SAMHSA

Office of National Drug Control Policy