THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA DECEMBER 11, 1998

Cohesive family environment is critical, says UVic study

by Patty Pitts

In the nature versus nurture debate of child development, nurture just gained another point.

A study of Vancouver families says a caring, cohesive family is important in preventing the development of substance abuse in children, and genetic predisposition may be less important as a predictor of substance abuse than originally thought.

These are among the results of the two-and-a-half year study conducted by principal investigator Dr. Gordon Barnes (child & youth care) on the relationships between aspects of the family environment and the development of substance abuse.

The study also says that parents who are over-protective may be leading their children to drink. That is, the more the youth is over-protected, the more likely it will be that she or he will engage in heavy drinking.

"What we found was that high-risk personality traits are higher in families that are providing less care and more coercive parenting&emdash;that includes heavy-handed disciplinary tactics and physical types of discipline," says Barnes. "What is surprising is that the effect of the family environment is every bit as strong in adoptive families as in biological families."

Up until now, family socializ-ation studies haven't included a control group to monitor the genetic effect. The Vancouver Family Survey was the first one to do so by studying both biological families and adoptive families.

From November 1994 to March 1997 the researchers examined family influences on substance abuse patterns by using data gathered from more than 600 Vancouver families. In all, 128 adoptive families and 473 biological families took part in the $430,000 study funded by Canada's National Health Research and Development Program.

"Parental care and monitoring seemed to play an important role in predicting offspring substance abuse and problem behaviours," concludes the study. "Lower rates of adolescent substance use and problem behaviours were observed in families that were characterised as more caring and cohesive." The effectiveness of families was undermined where there is alcohol abuse, states the study, leading to increased stress among family members and less effective parenting practices.

"Our study confirms the effectiveness of parenting strategies used by programs such as STEP (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting) and PET (Parent Effectiveness Training)," says Barnes. "These methods look at improving communication with children, using natural and logical consequence discipline and encouraging positive relationships with children. Our study also provides a more hopeful view of the world than if all behaviours were caused solely by genetics," says Barnes.

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