The Family Context of Adolescent Drug Use

Here is an essential volume for educators, social workers, health care professionals, and parents who are frustrated by the consuming power of drugs over the lives of young people and looking for answers to this enormous problem. In this unique and highly practical volume, experts concentrate on the family--the foundation of mental health and social control--as the most positive force in the prevention of adolescent drug use. Despite the “war on drugs,” young people in large numbers continue to use substances. This instructive guide focuses on educating and strengthening families--which makes stronger children who are less likely to use drugs--instead of the traditional efforts based on rehabilitation instead of prevention. It offers instructive background information about societal forces that affect families and make it difficult to raise drug-free youngsters. Family differences are discussed, such as family structure, parenting styles, ethnic and cultural characteristics. Contributors thoroughly examine practical, effective interventions--at home, at school, and with peers--that are positive rather than negative, instructional rather than punitive, and preventive instead of remedial.