Indulged children 'turn to ecstasy'

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/01/ndrug01.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/01/ixportal.html

Teenagers are more likely to experiment with ecstasy if they have grown up with lenient, indulgent parents, researchers said yesterday.

A study found a strong correlation between parental permissiveness and ecstasy use in 18- to 25-year-olds.

Catharine Montgomery, a researcher from Liverpool John Moores University, said: "The less control parents exhibit the more severe drug use is. It is correlated with increased doses of ecstasy, longer-term use and a younger age at first use.

"Indulgent parents may offer support and warmth but maybe they think it is nice to do what they want. We found that this kind of lack of control was the most important predictor of ecstasy use."

[nashville_brook]

1. how do you quantify permissiveness?

[skylarmae]

3. good question! n/t

[bemildred]

4. That's easy, if the kids run wild, the parents must be permissive.

QED.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. This is a SCIENTIFIC study?

Before the Mums and Dahs of Merrie Olde break out the canes and tawses, they should look at the flawed basis of the study:

Her team studied 86 ecstasy users and 82 non-users. They were asked questions designed to investigate their upbringing, relating both to parental warmth and levels of freedom.

Maybe the Ecstasy simply reduced the users' hostility toward their parents. A similar result would almost certainly result from a study of psychotherapy patients who had positive therapeutic outcomes. Did Dr. Montgomery ever give that a thought?

--p!