Siblings’ bad habits brush off
Brothers and sisters are more powerful role models than friends or parents when it comes to teenage drinking and smoking, research has shown.
Researchers from The University of Queensland and University of Washington have proved that tobacco and alcohol use by older siblings increases the odds of similar behaviour from younger siblings by three to five times.
University of Washington Sociologist Dr Abby Fagan studied the contributions and influence of parents, siblings and peers on teen drug use.
Dr Fagan used data from 1370 Brisbane teenagers, who’ve been part of one of the world’s longest running health studies — the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy.
The teenagers were interviewed between 1995 and 1997 at 14 years old and were asked about how often they drank and smoked and also about their family relationships.
On average, 13 percent of younger siblings reported smoking and 36 percent reported drinking, but rates increased when older siblings also reported substance use.
About 10 percent of younger siblings with non-smoking older siblings used tobacco, compared to 40 percent of those whose older siblings smoked.
Likewise, younger sibling alcohol use increased from 25 to 53 percent when older siblings reported drinking.
“The results underscore the need to include siblings, or at least address issues relating to sibling relationships and influences, in prevention efforts,” Dr Fagan wrote in her study, published in the latest American Journal of Drug Issues.
“Currently, most tobacco and alcohol prevention programs target individuals for change or are aimed at improving parent-child communication and interactions.
“If siblings are more powerful role models than parents, however, sibling and their potential influences on each other should be a primary focus of intervention.”
Maternal depression also had a significant effect on adolescent substance use.
Dr Fagan’s paper was co-written with UQ’s Mater Study founder, Professor Jake Najman.
The Mater Study was started in 1981 as a health and social study of 7223 pregnant women.
Media Contact
All latest news from the category: Social Sciences
This area deals with the latest developments in the field of empirical and theoretical research as it relates to the structure and function of institutes and systems, their social interdependence and how such systems interact with individual behavior processes.
innovations-report offers informative reports and articles related to the social sciences field including demographic developments, family and career issues, geriatric research, conflict research, generational studies and criminology research.
Newest articles
High-energy-density aqueous battery based on halogen multi-electron transfer
Traditional non-aqueous lithium-ion batteries have a high energy density, but their safety is compromised due to the flammable organic electrolytes they utilize. Aqueous batteries use water as the solvent for…
First-ever combined heart pump and pig kidney transplant
…gives new hope to patient with terminal illness. Surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed the first-ever combined mechanical heart pump and gene-edited pig kidney transplant surgery in a 54-year-old woman…
Biophysics: Testing how well biomarkers work
LMU researchers have developed a method to determine how reliably target proteins can be labeled using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Modern microscopy techniques make it possible to examine the inner workings…
