CLAREMONT, Calif., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Forty-two percent of U.S. high school seniors admit experimenting with marijuana but U.S. researchers say parental monitoring can decrease marijuana use.
Psychologists Andrew Lac and William Crano of the Claremont Graduate University reviewed numerous studies to examine the connection between parental monitoring and adolescent marijuana use.
Lac and Crano selected 17 studies from the literature that contained data on more than 35,000 participants.
The review, published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, found there is a strong, reliable link between parental monitoring -- when parents know where their children are, who they are with and what they are doing -- and decreased marijuana usage in adolescents. This was most strongly seen the female-only studies.
"Our review suggests that parents are far from irrelevant, even when it comes to an illegal and often secretive behavior on the part of their children," the researchers said in a statement.
