Parental substance use behaviors can also affect age of initiation and level of use among adolescents. It has been shown that having a positive family history of alcohol dependence or problem drinking increases risk for adolescent alcohol use and dependence symptoms (Chassin, Rogosch, & Barrera, 1991; Sher, 1991; Sher, Walitzer, Wood, & Brent, 1991). More broadly, children with a family history of alcohol or drug dependence are more likely to follow various deviant pathways, one of which is alcohol use (Hesselbrock & Hesselbrock, 2006; Moss, Lynch, & Hardie, 2003; Sher, Grekin, & Williams, 2005). In some studies, it has been shown that parent drinking interacts with peer behavior. For example, Jones and colleagues (2008) found no main effect for whether an adolescent consumed alcohol based on his or her parents’ level of use. However, adolescents whose peers use alcohol are at the greatest risk for drinking if their parents experienced problems from drinking and the least risk if their parents experienced few problems from drinking. This effect was observed for African Americans, as well as for European Americans.
