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Predicting High Risk Adolescents’ Substance Use Over Time: The Role of Parental Monitoring

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Abstract

We examined whether parental monitoring at baseline predicted subsequent substance use in a high-risk youth population. Students in 14 alternative high schools in Washington State completed self-report surveys at three time points over the course of 2 years. Primary analyses included 1,423 students aged 14–20 who lived with at least one parent or step-parent at baseline. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found that high parental monitoring at baseline predicted significantly less use of alcohol, marijuana, downers, cocaine, PCP, LSD, and prescription drugs and drinking to intoxication at the first posttest. Approximately 1 year later, high parental monitoring at baseline predicted significantly less use of alcohol, cocaine, prescription drugs, uppers, and ecstasy and drinking to intoxication. Study results suggest that parental monitoring serves as a protective factor, even for high-risk alternative high school students. Including a parental monitoring component may increase the effectiveness of traditional drug prevention programs.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by grants 2003-DR-FX-001 and 2007-JF-FX-0064 awarded to the third author by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice. We would like to thank members of our Evaluation Advisory Board for their guidance, our data collectors for their hard work, and all of our participating schools for their collaboration. We also are grateful to Sharon Fowler for her clerical assistance with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Chapel Hill Center, 1516 E. Franklin Street, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, USA

    Heddy Kovach Clark, Chris L. Ringwalt & Sean Hanley

  2. Heddy Clark at PAR, Inc., 16204 N. Florida Ave., Lutz, FL, 33549, USA

    Heddy Kovach Clark

  3. Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Louisville Center, 1300 South 4th Street, Suite 300, Louisville, KY, 40208, USA

    Stephen R. Shamblen

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  1. Heddy Kovach Clark
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Correspondence to Heddy Kovach Clark.

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Clark, H.K., Shamblen, S.R., Ringwalt, C.L. et al. Predicting High Risk Adolescents’ Substance Use Over Time: The Role of Parental Monitoring. J Primary Prevent 33, 67–77 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-012-0266-z

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