Parent-child communication and marijuana initiation: Evidence using discrete-time survival analysis

Nonnemaker, J., Ashley, O., Farrelly, M., & Dench, D. (2012). Parent-child communication and marijuana initiation: Evidence using discrete-time survival analysis. Addictive Behaviors, 37(12), 1342-1348. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.07.006

This study supplements existing literature on the relationship between parent-child communication and adolescent drug use by exploring whether parental and/or adolescent recall of specific drug-related conversations differentially impact youth's likelihood of initiating marijuana use. Using discrete-time survival analysis, we estimated the hazard of marijuana initiation using a logit model to obtain an estimate of the relative risk of initiation. Our results suggest that parent-child communication about drug use is either not protective (no effect) or - in the case of youth reports of communication - potentially harmful (leading to increased likelihood of marijuana initiation)