Culturally protective parenting practices against substance use among adolescents in Mexico

Using ecological risk and resiliency theory, this exploratory study examined the relationship between parental support and parental monitoring on male and female adolescents' lifetime and recent use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana among a sample of 980 adolescents from Tijuana, Mexico. The participants' ages ranged from 15 to over 22 years. Approximately 25% of the participants indicated that their families were of low socioeconomic status (SES) and majority of participants' mothers (74.2%) and fathers (68.6%) had less than a high school education. The results of this study indicated that parental support and parental monitoring were significant predictors of lower lifetime and recent substance use for males and females. Parental support significantly predicted lower lifetime and recent cigarette use among males and lower recent marijuana use among females. Parental monitoring, however, was a stronger predictor of lower recent alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use among adolescent females in the study. Because substance use in Mexico tends to be higher in cities that border the United States, understanding protective factors against adolescent substance use is important in the development of culturally appropriate substance abuse prevention programmes in Mexico. Implications for research and practice are discussed.