Making Connections Between Parenting Practices and Adolescent Substance Use

Studies emphasizing various group socialization mechanisms, for example, suggest that parental influences fade away in comparison to those of peers when it comes to adolescent substance use. While most studies focus on the substance-using friends as the sources of risk, these peer-effects can be protective too: for example, a recent longitudinal report demonstrated that nonusing peers, but not parental monitoring, lessened the risk imposed by the neighborhood drug problems on adolescents' alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Even though the role of peers in the development of substance use behaviors cannot be dismissed, current literature provides considerable evidence that parents, still, do matter and can provide positive role for their children.