Association between parental drug use and adolescent drug abuse: The differential effect of family structure and neighborhood drug traffic

Introduction: Family dynamics constitute influential factors in the trajectory of adolescent drug use. The aim of our research was to study: (1) the association between parental drug consumption and adolescent drug use; and (2) to investigate the influence of some socioenvironmental factors in this association.

Method: The study was based on the Social and Health Survey of Children and Adolescents (Quebec Statistics Institute, Canada), a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 2346 youths aged 13-16 years and 1983 parents living in the province of Quebec in 1999. Adolescent drug use was assessed by a 4-point Likert scale for 5 psychoactive substance categories. Parental drug consumption was estimated by a dichotomous question on the use of five types of drugs. Studied covariates were family structure and level of drug traffic in the neighborhood. Adjustment variables were age, gender, family socioeconomic status and psychiatric comorbid diagnoses. Logistic regression models were performed with adolescent drug use as the outcome variable.

Results: Of the 1983 parent respondents, 120 used one or more drugs. The adolescents had a 2-fold higher risk of using drugs when their parents were drug users (OR=2.04; 95% CI=[1.18-3.54]). Family structure and a high-drug-traffic neighborhood modified this association, with the OR increasing to 8.92 (95% CI=[1.94-40.99]) in two-parent households in high-drug-traffic neighborhoods.

Conclusion: These results can be explained by social norms both at the family and neighborhood levels.