PULLMAN, Wash.-According to a recent study, teenagers who think their parents use cannabis, or whose parents have a favorable opinion of it, are more likely to try it themselves.
The new research, recently published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, found that parental monitoring of child behaviors and the closeness of parent-child relationships are crucial in adolescents’ views about cannabis use.
“If teens perceive their parents use cannabis, whether they actually do or not, it can send the message that the behavior is also acceptable for them, especially without explicit conversations that set boundaries for the teen,” said Stacey J. T. Hust, lead author of the study and a professor of communication at WSU.
The findings could help parents who use cannabis develop more effective strategies for communicating the health risks of cannabis use for minors with their children, according to a WSU press release on the study.
The WSU research team surveyed 276 adolescents aged 13-17 in Washington about their perceptions of parental cannabis use, their closeness to their parents and the level of parental monitoring in their lives for the study.
“This study sheds light on how mothers and fathers uniquely impact their children’s views on cannabis, providing a roadmap for future research to explore these differences further,” said Hust.
According to the study, 32 percent of teens believed their fathers used cannabis, while 25 percent thought their mothers did.
The study also found that parental closeness differed by gender, with adolescent girls’ use of cannabis affected by whether their mother’s used cannabis or not.
According to WSU, parental closeness concerning fathers was associated with positive attitudes about cannabis, whether the father used the substance or not.
Parental monitoring can also be a powerful factor against underage cannabis use, according to the study.
Hust and Jessica Willoughby, an associate professor of Communication at WSU and co-author of the study now plan to further their work by examining how parents communicate with teens about substance use.
