One particularly important parental influence on adolescent substance use is closeness. Parental closeness or family cohesion and bonding (Bahr, Marcos, & Maughan, 1995; Farrell, Barnes, & Barerjee, 1995), have been conceptualized as sharing discussion and leisure time (Zhang, Welte, & Wieczorek, 1999), and include nurturance, acceptance, and warmth (Schinke, Fang, & Cole, 2008). Researchers have demonstrated that adolescent children of alcohol-abusing parents receive less emotional support from their parents (Rutherford et al., 1997), and that adolescents who do not feel close to their parents are at greater risk for substance use and substance-related problems (Kandel, 1996; Kelly et al., 2011). Further, studies indicate that parents’ closeness to their adolescents may prevent early substance initiation and decrease adolescents’ frequency and amount of heavy drinking (Bahr et al., 1995; Zhang et al., 1999).
