Father-Teen Bond Linked to Lower Drug Risk

Most teenagers find it easier to talk about drugs with their mothers than with their fathers, and those who don’t get along with their fathers are at far greater risk of smoking, drinking and using drugs, a survey showed Monday.

Teens in two-parent families who have fair or poor relationships with their fathers are 68% more likely to use drugs than those in the average two-parent household that was surveyed, said the report issued Monday by the private National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

In contrast, children reared by their mothers alone were 30% more likely to use drugs than those living in the average two-parent home.

“Too many fathers are just AWOL in their kids’ lives,” Joseph Califano, the research center’s chairman, told a news conference. “They’re not there to help with homework and kids don’t go to them with important problems.”

About 2,000 youths ages 12 to 17 and 1,000 parents were surveyed by telephone in May and June. Researchers assessed the teens’ risk of drug use by asking, among other things, if they had friends who use drugs and if they thought they would use drugs themselves in the future.

Mothers influence their children’s important decisions three times as often as fathers and are more likely to have private talks about drugs, the study found. Fifty-eight percent of teens said they had very good or excellent relationships with their fathers, compared with 70% with their mothers.

Fifty-seven percent said it is easier to talk with their mothers about drugs; 26% prefer talking with their fathers. The remaining 17% said they do not know.

It has been difficult to encourage fathers to be close to their children because “fatherhood has not been culturally valued,” said Don Eberly, chairman of the National Fatherhood Initiative, a private support group for fathers.

“It matters a lot more that the father not only be present but emotionally engaged, that the father is investing his life in his children, that he knows his children, that he’s a friend to his children,” Eberly said.

Califano said fathers should ask themselves if they join with mothers in monitoring their teens’ conduct. And he said they should also ask, “How often do I eat meals with my children?”

The study found that children who never have dinner with their parents have a 70% greater risk of substance abuse.