child-parent relationships and parents’ preventive behaviors affecting the onset of substance use in children: my family study

Considering the fundamental role that parents play in a family dynamic, it is important to explore the parent-child relationship and examine what protective behaviors or risk factors may contribute to the onset of substance use in children. the present study aims to investigate the correlation between child-parent relationships and parents’ preventive behaviors and their effect on the onset of substance use in children. this cross-sectional study was carried out in 2014 among 234 randomly selected volunteer participants. these participants, who were all tehran-based iranian mothers, filled out a self-administered questionnaire in which they recorded: i-demographic information, ii of family-based behaviors aimed at preventing the onset of substance use in children, and iii of the child-parent relationship. data were analyzed via spss software (ver. 21.0) using pearson correlations, independent t-tests, and anova at a 95% significant level. results reported a negative significant correlation between conflict and closeness (r = -0.465, p ≥ 0.001), a positive significant correlation between closeness and preventive behaviors (r = 0.852, p ≥ 0.001), and a negative significant correlation between conflict and preventive behaviors (r = -0.605, p ≥ 0.001). the findings suggest that the development of preventive programs will contribute to increases in the child-mother closeness relationship and will help to prevent the onset of substance use in children.