A study done by Lawrence Lo produced some very
interesting data. Lo did a study to see
if there was a correlation between family conflict, family income, or parental
education and substance abuse (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana). Lo’s results showed that “Family conflict
[and family income] did not have a significant correlation with tobacco or
alcohol use, but was significantly correlated with marijuana use” (p. 7) and they
showed that “Parent education did not have a significant correlation with
alcohol use. However, parent education
was significantly correlated with tobacco and marijuana use” (p. 7). There was a positive correlation between
family income and parental education and marijuana use and a negative
correlation between family conflict and marijuana use. The positive correlation between family
income and parental education and substance abuse was surprising to me. Normally I hear about all of the substance abuse
that happening with people of low socioeconomic statues that substance abuse
with people of higher socioeconomic statues is not an as talked about
issue. Lo contributes this positive
relationship to “Accessibility and economic feasibility rather than [what most
people think,] poverty” (p. 8).
With this being said, when one person in a family
abuses some kind of substance it affects everyone. Substance abuse can tear families apart
(National institute on drug abuse, 2012).
This video tells one daughters story of how her mother abusing prescription drugs affected her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmn5B7fvr4
This video tells one daughters story of how her mother abusing prescription drugs affected her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmn5B7fvr4
Lo, L. (2009). Familial
and socioeconomic influences on substance abuse: An ecological model. The University of Minnesota Undergraduate
Journal of Psychology. 5-10.
National institute on drug
abuse. (2012). Drug abuse and addiction: One of America’s most challenging
public health problems. Retrieved from http://archives.drugabuse.gov/about/welcome/aboutdrugabuse/magnitude/
Allie Tenore
Allie Tenore
Allie, in my research on children I also found some information on marijuana. A child's development when their parent(s) used marijuana is negatively affected. I really like how you included that substance abuse is used not just by lower class people but also by upper class people. That is a bias that society has that substance abuse is only used by the poor, great point!
ReplyDelete-mollie messuri
ReplyDeleteMollie, I was glad that I could find a study that proved that point because our culture will often just assume that it is people living in poverty that have substance abuse issues when in reality it can effect many more people.
ReplyDeleteAllie Tenore
Allie, did you find any research on whether there were just as many higher income families suffering with substance abuse as lower income families? Or was it not mentioned in the research you found.
ReplyDelete-Molly Trayner
Molly, surprising to me, in this research I did find that there was families of a higher socioeconomic status that were struggling with substance abuse issues just as commonly as families with lower socioeconomic statuses.
ReplyDelete-Allie Tenore