Family members’ wartime deployments increase teens’ drug and alcohol use
LOS ANGELES—Multiple deployments during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are impacting not only the men and women who have served overseas, but are also causing strain on their adolescent family members at home.
A new study from researchers at the University of Southern California School of Social Work finds a connection between increased drug and alcohol use among middle and high school students and deployments of either a military parent or sibling. The patterns of increased substance use were consistent for lifetime use, as well as in the most recent 30-day period.
“The potential for strain and the trauma associated […]