Immigrant parents and their U.S.-born children may experience stressful family conflicts over the disparate sociocultural norms of the United States and their country of origin. Such stresses may heighten adolescents' vulnerability to drug abuse. This article documents the extent of drug use in a sample of 200 U.S.-born Asian Indian adolescents. According to the study participants' self-reports on lifetime use, 28 percent had used alcohol on at least one occasion, 16.5 percent had used cigarettes, and 2.5 percent had used marijuana. Adolescents who placed importance on their parents' drug abuse prevention messages tended not to use drugs. The implications of the study's findings for drug abuse assessment, treatment, and prevention are discussed.

immigrants Asian Indians Drug abuse risks Acculturation Adolescence

India human Substance-Related Disorders persuasive communication child behavior ethnology United States Humans Adolescent social control Asian Americans male Asian American Acculturation female cultural factor Parenting prevalence Article Adolescent Behavior Social Control, Informal migration Emigration and Immigration addiction child parent relation