The proposed study is an extension of our current research concerning the role of the father in his offspring's drug use. Whereas in the past we have centered our attention on father-son relations, here we are concerned with father-daughter. The study is designed to examine paternal personality characteristics and child-rearing practices as related to the daughter's drug use. We also plan to examine these paternal factors in interaction with adolescentt personality attributes and the family and peer systems in relation to the females' a) choice of drugs and b) mild versus heavy use of tobacco and marijuana. Our conceptualizations are rooted in the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. Self-administered questionnaires will be given to 300 female college students (from intact homes) and their fathers in the fall of 1982. Both the student and the father questionnaires will include a number of scales with adequate psychometric properties designed to tap paternal personality characteristics, paternal child-rearing practices, adolescent personality attributes, and family context and peer variables. A series of questions on both licit and illicit drug use pertaining to the adolescent as well as to significant other in her environment will also be included. Data obtained in the proposed father-daughter study will be compared with data obtained in our current father-son study, so that the father's role in his offsprings' development may be more comprehensively assessed. Our primary analytic technique will be hierarchical multiple regression. The major contribution of the study will be to provide data on the paternal determinants of female drug use, an area about which very little is known at the present time. This information should provide greater understanding of the father's role in the family, as well as a more complete knowledge of drug use both of which are necessary for purposes of prevention and treatment of adolescent drug use.
