Adolescents at risk for drug and alcohol abuse

Although all children have the potential for becoming destructively involved with psychoactive drugs, there is considerable evidence that youngsters with particular kinds of psychologic and family problems are at high risk for chemical dependency. These include youngsters with developmental deficiencies that interfere with their capacity to master the environment. Children with a strong family history of alcoholism or drug abuse also seem to be at high risk. Obviously, there is some overlap between these two groups, not only because parental drug abuse and alcoholism may damage the fetus, but because chemically dependent parents are more likely to abuse or neglect their children because of the impact of their own illness on their functioning as parents. In addition, families in which drug use is modeled as a typical behavior are more likely to produce adolescents who use drugs, although rigid rules against drug use are relatively ineffective in preventing adolescents from experimenting with drugs. Finally, certain behavior patterns in young childhood--particularly severe aggressiveness, rebelliousness, and learning problems at school--seem to be correlated with the development of chemical dependency during adolescence.