Amelia M. Arria, PhD¹, Vanessa Therese Kuhn², Kevin E. O'Grady, PhD³, Dawn B. Fitzelle, MSW¹, Tom Gray, MA¹, Erin Johnson³, and Eric D. Wish, PhD¹. (1) Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR), University of Maryland, College Park, 4321 Hartwick Road, Suite 501, College Park, MD 20740, (2) Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, 301-405-9795, vkuhn@jhsph.edu, (3) Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, 1147 Biology/Psychology Building, College Park, MD 20740

This study uses data from the College Life Study to examine the association between parental monitoring in high school and illicit drug use among college students. A survey was administered to a sample of N=484 college students ages 18-25. Students responded to questions about their drug involvement and completed a 7-item Likert-type Parental Monitoring Scale adapted from earlier studies. The Parental Monitoring Scale had good internal consistency and reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .73). Controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, age, and importance of religion, the Parental Monitoring Scale predicted the number of different substances used (p = .001) and the earliest age of first use of any one of 10 drugs (p < .001). Moreover, marijuana-using college students had significantly lower scores on the Parental Monitoring Scale than their non-marijuana-using peers. These findings confirm and extend previous studies of middle school students with regard to the positive impact of parental monitoring on reducing drug use risk.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the association between parental monitoring and risk for youth drug use
• Articulate possible drug prevention strategies that utilize research on parental monitoring

Keywords: Drug Use, Adolescents

Related Web page: www.cesar.umd.edu

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.