Parental Perceptions of Children's Drug Use Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to determine parental perceptions of children's drug use behaviors. Approximately 7,000 6th-12th grade students in a large Southwest Virginia school district completed a modified Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The YRBS included a number of questions related to drug use including the SAMHSA CORE Measures (age of onset, 30 day use, perception of harm and perception of parental disapproval for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. In addition to students completing the YRBS, an online survey containing CORE measure questions was developed and made available to the children's parents. Parents responded to questions regarding what they thought their children's responses would be to the CORE measures. Approximately one hundred and seventy-one (n=171) middle school parents and two hundred and ninety-two (n=292) high school parents completed the online surveys. Data from both the YRBS and the Parent Surveys were imported into SPSS v.17 and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results showed that parents perceptions of their children's drug use behaviors were underestimated when compared to their children's responses on the YRBS. It was concluded that parental education regarding youth drug use is an important and strategic component in comprehensive school/community health education.