Parents are often responsible for teen prescription drug abuse

A new report published in the American Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics has concluded that parents are a major influence in teenage prescription drug abuse. How parents view prescription drug use influences their children’s attitudes significantly and it is thought that this goes some way towards explaining racial and ethnic variations in drug abuse.

The research was carried out by Suffolk University in Boston. Researchers Brigid M Conn, MA, and Amy K Marks, PhD, explained their findings: “Our findings add support to growing evidence that parents continue to remain a vital part of adolescents’ decision-making, particularly regarding potentially risky behaviours.”

The study examined data from 18,000 adolescents gathered from a national survey. The survey revealed that prescription drug abuse in higher-income families has fallen. Older adolescents are most likely to abuse prescription drugs, and girls are more likely to abuse them than boys. Overall, 3.4% of Caucasian adolescents abused tranquillisers, which is similar to the Hispanic abuse level of 2.9%. Only 0.9% of African-American youths abuse these types of drugs.

Prescription drug abuse amongst Caucasian teenagers is lower when their parents are strongly against any type of substance use; such Caucasian children are less likely to abuse prescription drugs than Hispanic and African-American youths.

Ms Marks said: “No matter what the ethnic/racial background of the family, parents’ disapproving attitudes about misusing substances in general ‒ whether alcohol, marijuana, or tobacco ‒ play a strong role in protecting their adolescents from misusing prescription medicine.”

There is a general assumption that children will be heavily influence by friends, but the reality seems to be that children are still respecting their parents’ opinions.