Parental factors related to alcohol/drug abuse among adolescents

Parental factors related to adolescent alcohol/drug abuse were examined among 68 parents of hospitalized middle class adolescent alcohol/drug abusers and 68 parents of comparable nonhospitalized adolescents. Parents responded to the following questionnaires: demographic information, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Socialization Scale, Sensation Seeking Scale, modified Cornell Medical Index, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Severity of Alcohol Dependency Scale, Drug Abuse Screening Test, Alcohol/Drug Use History, Tarter's Hyperactivity Symptom List, Shipley Institute of Living Scale, Family Environment Scale, and Childhood Abuse Questionnaire. Results for mothers and fathers were analyzed separately because mothers of 74 adolescents, fathers of 28 adolescents, and both mothers and fathers of 17 adolescents were interviewed.; A discriminant function analysis found cohesion of mothers' family of procreation and number of medical problem discriminated between control and patient mothers. Patient mothers were more likely to have an alcoholic mother, a spouse with an alcohol/drug abuse history, and children in addition to the target child with an alcohol/drug problem as compared to control mothers. Patient fathers reported more alcoholic biological relatives as compared to control fathers.; Patient mothers reported less family of procreation cohesion, expression, independence, intellectual/cultural and active/recreational emphasis and more family of origin conflict and moral/religious emphasis as compared to control mothers. Patient fathers reported less family of procreation cohesion, expression, and intellectual/cultural orientation and no family of origin differences as compared to control fathers.; Maltzman and Schweiger's (submitted B) investigation of adolescent children of parental subjects were generalized with intellectual/cultural orientation discriminating between control and patient mothers, a variable which had discriminated between the two adolescent groups. A multiple regression predicted adolescents' drug dependency by mothers' sensation seeking, grandmother's alcoholism, family psychiatric history, and family of origins' cohesion, moral/religious and intellectual/cultural orientation.; Childhood physical and/or sexual abuse was reported by 54.17% of control and 47.73% of patient mothers and 45.83% of patient and 47.37% of control fathers, nonsignificant group and gender differences. Abused as compared to non-abused parents had greater alcohol dependency, more medical and childhood hyperactivity symptoms, lower levels of socialization and greater levels of verbal ability, neuroticism, and addiction proneness.