Timberline Knolls | Information on Substance Abuse

Information on Substance Abuse

Teen Substance Abuse

Despite dramatic declines during the 1980s, substance abuse among teens rose steadily throughout the 1990s. While the increase has leveled off in recent years, younger teens are now using drugs at unprecedented rates. On average, American children use drugs for the first time at age 12. That means high-risk children start using drugs at age 9 or 10, while children at less risk may start experimenting at age 15. Researchers at the University of Michigan began tracking drug use among high school seniors in 1975. They have added eighth-graders to their growing database, and have started to monitor substance abuse among sixth-graders.

Drug use/non-use factors

Research points to several factors in drug abuse among teens. Cultural influences that glamorize drug use and minimize the danger involved contribute to the problem. Forty-one percent of teens and 53 percent of their parents say that American culture glamorizes the use of illegal drugs.

Parental attitudes and expectations about drugs and alcohol also contribute to growing acceptance of their use among teens. Sixty-five percent of Baby Boomer parents who had used marijuana regularly expected their own children to use, compared with only 29 percent of Baby Boomer parents who never used the drug, according to a study published by the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA). The report added that teens whose parents think their teen is "very likely" to use are at more than three times the risk of substance abuse compared to teens whose parents say future drug use is "not likely at all."

According to a University of Minnesota study published in the Journal of American Medicine, the following factors were found among seventh- through 12th-graders less likely to use alcohol, nicotine and marijuana:

more parental presence at home
more "connectedness" and emotional closeness with parents
more shared activities with parents
importance placed on religion and prayer
high self-esteem

This is good news, since involved parents play a crucial role in preventing drug and alcohol use. But parents who are too busy, uninvolved or who harbor expectations that their children will experiment with drugs or alcohol are more likely to have teens who abuse substances than involved parents with high expectations of their children's behavior.