Parenting adolescents is challenging when trying to balance discipline and love to prevent adolescent substance use and abuse.  Parents  use communication strategies in hopes of controlling the adolescent's behavior, but parents' choice of strategy depends on the behavior.  Parents  extend privileges if they observe good behavior, and they make rules stricter and controls tighter if the children do not match the standards created in the household to keep check on substance use.

 

In this article, Shweta Arpit Srivastava and Dr. Ann Burnett share results from a study conducted to explore how parents respond to the possibility of adolescent substance use and what they are doing to prevent its occurrence.