Fathers who drink too much put their sons at greater risk for teen alcohol and drug abuse, according to a new government study of more than 9,500 father and son pairs:

• Researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that 38 percent of male teenagers whose fathers abuse alcohol also drink.
• Among those whose fathers drank moderately, only 33 percent of their sons use alcohol.
• Among those whose fathers drank not at all, only 21 percent use alcohol. The teenagers in the study were ages 12 to 17 years old.

A father's abuse of alcohol also put a son at greater risk for drug abuse. Among teens in the study whose fathers abused alcohol, 24 percent said they used drugs. Among those whose fathers abstained from drinking, 14 percent reported having tried drugs.

The SAMHSA researchers used data drawn from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which collected responses from 11,056 fathers and 9,537 father-child respondent pairs between 2002 and 2007.

Labels: teen_drug_use, alcohol_abuse, parents, drug_abuse, fathers

Posted By: Aspen/CRC