Brief Family-Based Intervention for Substance Abusing Adolescents.

Research has shown that a lack of parental involvement in their children's activities predicts initiation and escalation of substance use. Parental monitoring and supervision, parent-child communication including communication regarding beliefs and disapproval of substance use, positive parenting, and family management strategies, have been shown to protect against adolescent substance abuse and related problems. Family and parenting approaches to preventing and intervening on adolescent substance abuse have received support in the literature. This article discusses the theoretical foundations as well as the application of the Family Check-up, a brief, family-based intervention for adolescent substance use.