Parental Permissiveness, Control, and Affect and Drug Use Among Adolescents

Background: Parents play an important role in determining the risk of children's drug use. The aim of this study was to analyse how certain family-related variables (permissiveness toward drug use, and parental control and affect) were linked to the use of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis, based on young people's self-report of such variables.

Method: The sample was composed of 1,428 school children (51.8% males) aged between 11 and 19 from Mallorca (Spain).

Results: We found that the young people who perceived their parents as permissive and those who perceived less maternal control and higher levels of both paternal and maternal affect were more likely to use alcohol, tobacco and cannabis. Sex differences were found within this pattern. Variables of maternal affect and control were not influential among males, whereas the general pattern was maintained among females.

Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of perceived permissiveness and the need of considering parent's and children's gender when providing control and affect, as fathers will influence male children whereas mothers will influence female children.