Relationships with adults as predictors of substance use,gang involvement,and threats to safety among disadvantaged urban high‐school adolescents

Using a resilience framework, the authors examined the protective effects of parental support, self‐disclosure to parents, parent‐initiated monitoring of adolescent behavior, and relationships with school personnel on three critical problems of adolescents: substance use, gang involvement, and perceived threats to safety at school. The sample consisted of 342 ethnically diverse high‐school students in an economically disadvantaged urban area in the southwestern United States. The regression analyses controlled for academic performance, poor anger management, risk‐seeking propensities, co‐occurring substance use, and co‐occurring gang involvement. Interactions as well as main effects were examined. The specific protective roles of all four adult relationships were identified with respect to problematic outcomes. Adolescent self‐disclosure to parents, a variable rarely examined in resilience research, was associated with less chance of substance use for two high‐risk groups: those already involved with gangs, and those with high risk‐seeking tendencies. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 1053–1071, 2007.