The Conditional Effect of Parental Drug Use on Parental Attachment and Adolescent Drug Use: Social Control and Social Development Model Perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACT The effect of parental deviance on adolescent deviance has been a source of considerable debate in the criminological literature. Classic theoretical explanations of the relationships between parental and adolescent deviance posit additive effects of parental deviance on youth behavior. Proponents of the Social Development Model have hypothesized that parental deviance interacts with parent-child attachment to increase adolescent antisocial behavior. Using data from a household survey of drug use in Washington State, we find that youth who arestrongly attached to fathers in households where parents frequently use drugs are more likely to use both licit and illicit drugs than adolescents strongly bonded to nondrug-using parents. Adolescents' perceptions of drug availability and associations with drug-using peers are also significantly higher among youth strongly attached to fathers in households where parent drug use is present.