Abstract
This study examined the relationships of parenting practices (i.e., psychological control, behavioral control, and parental acceptance) and family relationships (i.e., family cohesion and conflict) to internalizing and externalizing behaviors in adolescent substance abusers. Two Hundred and twenty-four clinically referred, low income, inner city, predominantly (72%) African-American adolescents and their families were enrolled in a substance abuse outcome study. At intake, the adolescents completed the Family Environment Scale, the Parenting Practices Scale, the Drug Abuse Diagnosis, the Personal Experiences Inventory, and the Youth Self Report. The parents completed the Family Environment Scale, the Parenting Practices Scale, and the Child Behavior CheckList. Based on common practice and the underlying theoretical assumptions, it was hypothesized that parenting practices would account for a significant portion of the variance in substance abuse and externalizing behaviors above the variance accounted for by family function. The findings suggest that of the various parenting practices examined---psychological control, behavioral control, and parental acceptance---only parental acceptance predicted variance in substance abuse and externalizing behaviors above the variance accounted for by family functioning. The findings suggest that therapeutic effort should be directed at parental acceptance as part of the therapeutic process in substance abuse and problem behavior treatment of adolescents. Directions for future research are discussed.