Parental Monitoring of Academics and Adolescents’ Engagement in Substance Use

Abstract

Lifelong substance use often begins during adolesence. Eighty eight percent of adult daily smokers began before age 18. By 12th grade, about two-thirds of student have tried alcohol; approximately half of 9th through 12th grade students have reported ever having used marijuana; and among 12th graders, approximately 2 in 10 reported using prescription medicine without a prescription. Adolescents reporting lower levels of parental monitoring are more likely to use illicit substance (primarily cannabis use). Poor parental monitoring is associated with many negative youth outcomes, including maladjustment, association with deviant peers, and poor performance in school. The purpose of this research was to determine if parental involvement in student academics, specifically parental checking student homework and parental help with student homework, were significantly associated with substance use based on data from the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The results of this study indicate both parental checking of homework and helping with homework are strongly and significantly associated with a reduction in substance use by adolescents (p = 0.0001).