| Sumario: | A study was conducted to examine the distribution of drug use among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years by family structure and to investigate the plausibility of two hypotheses that purport to explain the relationship between family structure and adolescent behavior, namely, economic resources and residential mobility. Data were collected from three years of information from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Findings indicated that the risk of drug use, including problem use, is greatest among adolescents in father-custody families, even after controlling for the effects of sex, age, race-ethnicity, family income, and residential mobility. In addition, it was found that the risk of drug use is lowest in mother-father families and that economic resources and residential mobility fail to explain these relationships, casting doubt on their ability to explain the relationship between family structure and an important adolescent behavior.
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