BJSW Advance Access published online on July 3, 2008
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn100
Parental Monitoring, Religious Involvement and Drug Use Among Latino and Non-Latino Youth in the Southwestern United States
Ms. Monica Parsai, MSW, is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Social Work at Arizona State University and a Research Scientist at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center. Her main research focus is on studying stress and coping among recent Mexican immigrant women in the Southwest. Dr Flavio F. Marsiglia, Ph.D., is the Foundation Professor of Cultural Diversity and Health at the School of Social Work and the Director of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center at Arizona State University. His research programme focuses on the protective effects of culture of origin on the health outcomes of Latino and American Indian youth and their families. Dr Stephen Kulis, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at the School of Social and Family Dynamics and he is the Director of Research at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center at Arizona State University. His research focuses on gender and ethnic identity and their relationship with the well-being of Mexican American and American Indian youth and their families
Correspondence to Monica Parsai, MSW, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave, Suite 720, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA. Email: monica.parsai{at}asu.edu
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Abstract |
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The purpose of this study was to examine parental monitoring practice and religious involvement (protective factor) and substance use among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic adolescents in the Southwest of the US. We also relied on social control theories to guide our investigation of why adolescents may choose not to use drugs. The sample was n = 1087 adolescents, the age ranged from thirteen to fifteen years, and the gender distribution was approximately equal. There were 71 percent Hispanics and 29 percent non-Hispanics in the sample. A number of measures were used including recent substance use, religiosity, religious affiliation, parental monitoring, parental permissiveness, parental norms, and acculturation. Linear regressions were used to examine the relationship between the variables of interest and the outcomes. Although the effect sizes of the significant relationships were modest, our findings are of interest because they reinforce the importance of the role of parents in the lives of their adolescents and supports previous studies that find that parents have great influence on children's behaviours including substaince use. The results suggest that adolescents benefit from having clear rules from their parents concerning substance, and from believing that there is some kind of consequence attached to their behavior. This study is useful to practitioners, social workers, educators and other professionals working with parents and adolescents.
Keywords: Parental monitoring, revision, adolescent drug use