Family Structure, Family Tension, and Self-Reported Marijuana Use: A Research Finding of Risky Behavior among Youths

Abstract

This article examines the role of family structure in the self-reported lifetime and past month use of marijuana within a sample of American children. The research makes comparisons between youths living in two parent homes where both the biological father and mother are present and those who live in single parent, stepparent, or nonparent families. The results show that youths living in two parent families are far less likely to report ever having used marijuana, associate with marijuana using friends, or have siblings who use marijuana. Youths from two parent families, even those typified by high levels of tension in the household, are shown to report less use of marijuana than youths from low or high conflict homes where one or both of the biological parents are absent. The findings are similar for both males and females. Implications of the results as well as directions for future research are presented.