Perceived family relationships in drug abusing adolescents

A group of 15- to 16-year-old adolescents were asked to report on their perception of their own family relationships, previous family experiences and their perceptions of their relationships with their fathers and with their mothers. They were also asked to report on their use of psychoactive drugs. Drug users were more likely than non-users to perceive their families as distant and less involved, with poor communications, mistrusting and punitive. Fathers were more likely perceived to be ineffective, and less significant than mothers. Drug users reported more parental separation, divorce, re-marriage and bereavement.