TWO PARENTS NECESSARY TO KEEP KIDS DRUG-FREE
U.S. study measured family structure:
 | It takes a two-parent family to raise drug-free children, a new government
report says. |
| Adolescents not living with two parents--biological or adoptive--are 50 to
150 percent more likely to use illicit drugs, alcohol or cigarettes,
according to the study released Friday by Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala. |
| The greatest risk for drug use or dependence lies with teens who live in a
family with a father and stepmother, or who live on their own. |
| Those who live with their biological mothers alone are less likely to
become involved with drugs than those living alone with their biological
fathers. |
| The study is based on the same type of national household survey that
recently sowed substantial increases in drug use among teens nationwide. It
analyzed responses from 22,000 people ages 12 to 17 interviewed from 1991 to
1993. |
| Although previous studies have considered the effect of family structure
on alcohol and tobacco use among teens, this is the fist on marijuana and
other illicit drug use. |
| "These findings are one more indication that children who live with
two biological or adoptive parents have a measurable advantage in health
with the risks and temptations of adolescence," Shalala said. |
| The study found that the relationship between family structure and
substance abuse held up for all teens regardless of sex, age, family income
or race. |
| More than 60 percent of American youth are still raised in families with both natural or adoptive parents present, but the proportion living with one parent or with stepparents has grown substantially. |
Source: Scripps Howard, September 7, 1996.