Differences among Youthful Users and Nonusers of Drugs Based on Their Perceptions of Parental Behavior

Drugs and The Family

“…Hunt (1974) also noted more perceived laissez-faire parent-child relationships among heavy users, while medium users reported more autocratic relationships, and low usage correlated with democratic and quasidemocratic relationships. A similar note emerged from the study by Streit et al (1974) in which marijuana users perceived their parents as being less loving and granting more autonomy with hostility than nonusers.…”

“…Streit et al (1974) obtained reports that adolescent LSD users perceived more hostility with autonomy and less love from their parents than did nonusers. Male users perceived more autonomy and hostility froni parents than did female users, while the latter perceived more love with autonomy from their mothers than either male users or male and female nonusers.…”

“…A number of reports present data on control or "normal" families. In comparison to drug-using families, the non-or lowuse families show the following characteristics: e offspring perceive more love from both parents, particularly father (Mellinger, Somers, & Manheimer, 1975;Streit et al, 1974); o there is less discrepancy betwcen how the parents would ideally like their children to be versus how they actually perceive them, and children are seen as more assertive (Alexander & Dibb, 1977); parents and their offspring's friends are compatible,parents have more influence than peers, and less approval of drug use is voiced by parentsand peers (Jessor, 1975); * more spontaneous agreement is observed in problemsolving, b& if it does not occur the families are slower but more efficient in reaching solutions (Mead & Campbell, 1972); the families function more democratically or quasidemo. cratically, with shared authority and better conimunication (Cannon, 1976;Hunt, 1974).…”

Social Pressure in the Family and School

“…(iii) Parent-adolescent interaction and tbe family's inter-relationship problems Street et al,6 have suggested that a correlation exists between adolescent drug use and a teenager's negative perception of the family.…”

Substance Abuse and Family Interaction

“…Investigations have also focused on the drug‐using child's perceptions of his parents, as revealed by psychological testing. In particular, perceptions of parental love, hostility, discipline, rejection, and control by various means (viz., anxiety, guilt, withdrawal of relations) have been studied (79, 95), as well as the perception of family “closeness” (96). The families of origin of couples that include a heroin addict have been “reconstructed” through interviews with these hospitalized couples, and this reconstruction was found to illuminate greatly the current dyadic relationship (105).…”