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.

Adolescents With Two Nonresident Biological Parents: Living Arrangements, Parental Involvement, and Well-Being

“…Some studies report few or small differences in child well-being by whether the resident biological parent is a father or a mother, but when differences are found they generally suggest that children fare worse in father-resident than mother-resident households (Demuth & Brown, 2004; Downey, 1994; Downey, Ainsworth-Darnell, & Dufur, 1998; Hoffman & Johnson, 1998). The more limited studies that include nonparental households suggest that children may fare worse in these households than those in which one biological parent is present (Hollist & McBroom, 2006; Jeynes, 1999), especially if it is the mother who is present (Sun, 2003). The fact that nonparental households are generally more disadvantaged and have even lower levels of nonresident father involvement also lead us to hypothesize that adolescent well-being will be lowest in these households.…”

The Effects of Mexican origin family structure on parental monitoring and pre‐adolescent substance use expectancies and substance use

“…biological parents and children) families appear less at risk than those raised in single-parent or blended families (i.e. having a step-parent; Hollist & McBroom, 2006;Sweeney, 2007), perhaps because they experience fewer of the stressors that increase the likelihood of a pre-adolescent engaging in risky behaviour (Barrett & Turner, 2005). Additionally, extended families, with additional relatives living in the home along with the primary family, can serve as a protective mechanism against the development of pre-adolescent problem behaviours (Sarkisian, Gerena, & Gerstel, 2006;Lonczak, Fernandez, Austin, Marlatt, & Donovan, 2007).…”

¿Cómo influye la desorganización familiar en el consumo de drogas de los hijos? Una revisión

“…In this line, Kirby (2002) also found that parents' separation is associated with an increase in the number of friends who smoke, which in turn increases the probability of the adolescent starting to smoke -echoing Hollist and McBroom's (2006) finding in relation to marijuana use. Farrell and White (1998) also reported that young people living in homes without both biological parents may be more influenced by drug-user peers.…”

“…En este sentido, Kirby (2002) indicó también que la separación de los padres está asociada con un incremento en el número de amigos fumadores, lo que aumenta la probabilidad de que el adolescente se inicie en el consumo de tabaco al igual que señalaron Hollist y McBroom (2006) en relación al consumo de marihuana. También Farrell y White (1998) señalaron que los jóvenes que viven en hogares sin ambos padres biológicos podrían tener una mayor influencia de iguales consumidores de drogas.…”

“…Los adolescentes que viven en hogares monoparentales o con padrastros tienen más probabilidades de consumir drogas en comparación con adolescentes que viven con sus dos padres (Amey y Albrecht, 1998;Broman, Li y Reckase, 2008;Choquet, Hassler, Morin, Falissard, y Chau, 2008;Hetherington, Bridges e Insabella, 1998;Hoffman, 2002;Hoffman y Johnson, 1998;Hollist y McBroom, 2006;Kierkus y Hewitt, 2009;Suh, Schütz y Johanson, 1996). En concreto, se ha indicado que los adolescentes que viven con ambos padres biológicos tienen menos probabilidades de consumir cigarrillos y de beber alcohol que aquellos que viven con un solo padre o en una familia reconstituida (Bjarnason, Kirby, 2002Kirby, , 2006Ledoux, Miller, Choquet y Plant, 2002;Miller, 1997;Otten et al, 2007;Thompson, Lizardi, Keyes y Masin, 2008;Wolfinger, 1998).…”