NEGATIVE PARENTING LEADS YOUNG ADOLESCENTS TO DRUGS AND DRINK, STATSCAN SURVEY SUGGESTS

The odds of early adolescents getting drunk and using drugs are
relatively high if they see their parents as constantly nagging them,
Statistics Canada's first national study of alcohol and drug use among
12- to 15-year-olds suggests. The survey of 4,296 young people,
released yesterday, found hostile parenting styles -- characterized by
nagging, inconsistent rule enforcement, threats and anger -- affect
teen behaviour. After asking the youths questions about their
relationship with their parents, the researchers considered three
aspects: hostile parenting, parental monitoring and parent-child
cohesion. Only young people whose parents had a negative or hostile
parenting style were found to have significantly high odds of drinking
to intoxication or drug use. The odds increased by a factor of about
1.1 for every point increase in the hostile parenting scale.