The practice of prevention in the 1990s has focused largely on protective factors or the development of resiliency in the adolescent. Much of this research looks at the attachment of youth and family, referred also as bonding (Hawkins et al., 1992) or connectedness (Resnick et al. 1997).

Family factors cited in the literature that increase resiliency include the child's attachment to the parent, the parent's attachment to the child, and the parent's involvement in the child's activities (Smith et al., 1995).

Other major family factors involving family closeness are as follows: the parent is nurturing and protective and concerned for the child's safety and health (Werner, 1990; Garmezy, 1985); develops close bonds with children (Sokol-Katz et al., 1997; Bahr et al., 1995; Hawkins and Catalano, 1992); values, supports, attends and encourages educational activity (Felner, 1982); spends quality time with children (Benson, 1993); and spends time with the child as a family unit (Benson, 1993).

However, a good parent/ adolescent relationship does not always protect the child from substance use. If the parent, particularly the mother, has a good relationship with the youth, and that parent uses substances, the youth is more likely to use drugs. Female youth were more likely to imitate paternal use and nonuse of a substance if they had a good, rather than a poor, relationship with their father. Additionally, parental abstinence did not always ensure abstinence in the child. A youth with a poor relationship with a nonusing parent was as likely to use substances as a youth with a using parent (Andrews, 1994).

Research that examined the components of support from the family showed that support was marked by more behavioral coping and academic competence, and less tolerance for deviance and uncontrolled behavior (Wills and Cleary, 1996).

Parenting IS Prevention Training of Trainers Workshop, 1998	SAMHSA

Office of National Drug Control Policy