Family Structure and Initiating Non-Medical Drug Use Among Adolescents

Abstract

Using data from the 1991 and 1992 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, multiple logistic regression models were used to estimate the relative risk of initiating non-medical drug use by 12-17-year-old adolescents living in families without both biological parents present compared to those living with both biological parents. To hold constant unmeasured socio-environmental confounding factors, we employed an epidemiological strategy that involves post-stratification of adolescents into neighborhood risk sets. The results indicated that adolescents living in families without both parents were more likely to initiate non-medical drug use, but these associations were varied by sex. These results help measure the impact of divorce/separation/death and/or remarriage of parents on adolescents and identify subgroups at a higher risk for initiating non-medical drug use.