Research & Resources

This study documents the prevalence of parents’ disapproval of adolescent substance use and characteristics associated with disapproval. Survey data from national samples of 35-year-old parents from the Monitoring the Future study were collected from 1993 to 2018. Across all cohorts, rates of disapproving attitudes ranged from 93.7% disapproving of getting drunk occasionally to 97.2% disapproving of regular cigarette use, with some erosion in disapproval for substances across cohorts. Parents’ own recent abstinence from substance use predicted greater odds of disapproval. Prevention and public health messaging can support parenting by sharing this important information.

This paper, “35-Year-Old Parents Do Not Approve of 17-Year-Olds’ Cigarette, Marijuana, or Alcohol Use: U.S. National Data 1993-2018,” was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and published in the Journal of adolescent health.