It may be that weak parent-adolescent bonds augment vulnerability to peer pressure. Impaired parent-adolescent attachments may reflect difficulties that date to childhood and escalate to crisis proportions with the developmental challenges and associated turmoil of the adolescent life stage. Family structure is also associated with differential risks of substance use. Familial influence may involve various risk factors such as genetic influences, parental psychopathology, parental substance use, and the availability of substances. Determining the relative contribution of risk factors is difficult.
Risk factors vary for different disorders and substances.
Factors such as parental use, troubled family relationships, and emotional or behavioral problems may be most predictive of escalation to more serious substance use.