It Takes a Family to keep a Kid out of Trouble

The family who stays together and stays involved in their children’s lives is the family in which children stay off drugs. That’s the finding of a study conducted by Gene Brody, who directs UGA’s Center for Family Research.

As children get older, they need to establish their independence by spending time away from their parents, but children don’t necessarily need less from their parents. Brody said children still want to be close to their parents, and adults still need to know what their children are doing and who they are spending their time with.

For his recent study, Brody and his team worked with 502 rural, African American Georgia families with a 16-year-old in the family. His results show that family-centered preventative intervention reduces risky behavior and substance abuse by more than 30 percent.

The particular form of intervention involves the entire family, not just the children, as others programs do. The UGA program has 10 hours of training, at 2-hour increments, with the first hour divided into a children’s group and a parents’ group, and the second hour with youth and adults together.

“We work to increase levels of communication and monitoring,” said Brody. “And we work toward positive problem solving.”

The adults learned about monitoring and control; how to deal with racism; how to set expectations and norms; how to give academic academic support; and about cooperative problem solving. A child who experiences high levels of discrimination is likely to resort to drugs, Brody said, so it's important that adults know how to help children deal with this.

Adults need to be involved in their children's schools and to set up a structure for completing homework. Previous studies by the Center for Family Research have shown the value of instilling pride and celebrating academic achievement, so those elements were incorporated into this training. 

Half of the 16-year-olds who attended the training learned why it's important to have and follow family rules; they learned about strategies for coping with racism, the value of doing well in school and how to form and meet academic and career goals. The other half didn't get this information, though they did learn about health and nutrition issues.

Almost two years after the training, those who received the prevention information reported about 30 percent fewer conduct incidents. About half as many had alcohol and drug problems compared to the less informed group.

“We have shown that 10 hours of family-centered prevention programming can be effective in deterring behavioral, substance abuse and emotional problems among black adolescents across a period of almost two years,” said Brody.  

Brody’s research could impact the 15 million black families living in the rural southern coastal plain that stretches from South Carolina to Louisiana, one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in the U.S.

Brody said they will continue to follow the families from the training.