Adolescents from Divorced Families & Drug Abuse

The purpose of this paper is to delineate, discuss and summarize the existing research on substance abuse problems of adolescents from divorced families. The presented review covers two broad categories of studies. These are: (1) studies examining whether adolescents living in divorced families are more likely to abuse substances than adolescents living in intact nuclear homes; and (2) evaluative studies of diverse kinds of treatment for adolescent substance abusers living in divorced family situations.

Influence of Parental Divorce on Adolescent Substance Abuse

Examination of the existing research tends to indicate that adolescents living in divorced family situations are liable to a variety of substance abuse problems. For example, Hayward, Killen and Taylor (1989), in their study of 9th graders (N=95) found that those adolescents living in divorced families were not only more likely to suffer from depression and/or panic disorder but also were more likely to smoke cigarettes.

Regarding non-legal substance use, Hoffman (1995) investigated the effects of family structure and family relations on adolescent marijuana use. Analyses of data drawn from the National Youth Survey (197779) was said to indicate that (1) a parental divorce or living with a stepparent decreases family attachment among adolescents; 2) attenuated family attachment and involvement increase th

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The next question that needs to be asked regarding these findings is: What are the types and kinds of treatment being given to these youngsters and how effective are these interventions? In an effort to answer this question, the next section of the presented review examines studies related to the treatment of adolescent substance abusers from divorced families. Treatment The treatments that have been implemented with adolescent substance abusers are varied. According to Jenson, Howard and Jaffe (1995), the most common of these are: social skills training, family therapy, case management systems, most of which utilize posttreatment support groups to maintain abstinence from substance use. Weidman (1985) has made the point that if the substance abuse is at least in part related to parental divorce, the intervention most likely to help these adolescents is going to be some form of family therapy. As to the efficacy of family therapy for adolescent substance abuse, Schumacher, Dutchowski and Algarin (1993) report that success varies depending upon a variety of structural factors used in program design. For example, success will be facilitated or impaired depending upon such factors as the extent to which treatment philosophy i
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Approximate Word count = 2371
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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