There are often warning signs of trouble in adolescent girls that parents can watch for. They include:

• Running away from home for overnight / weekends
• Skipping classes or skipping full days of school
• School marks are dropping
• Behavioural issues identified
• Experimenting with alcohol / drugs
• Questionable peers - attraction to older crowds
• No apparent fear of street risk

Individual

• social skill deficits
• impulsivity
• hostility and aggression
• alienation
• rebelliousness
• learning difficulties
• behavioural problems
• temperament
• physical trauma
• early age of onset

Family

• parental abuse of alcohol, drugs, and/or gambling
• remaining in an abusive or conflict ridden family
• low parental support
• low parental monitoring
• poor family management, discipline, and problem solving
• favourable attitudes toward teen alcohol, other drug use and gambling
• parents' mental illness
• ineffective parenting skills, especially for children with learning disabilities or behavioural problems

School

• academic failure
• negative, disorderly, and unsafe school climate
• low teacher expectations
• lack of clear school policies regarding drug use
• lack of commitment to school
• withdrawn/aggressive classroom behaviour

Peers

• involvement with peers who use and have favorable attitudes towards alcohol, other drugs, and gamble
• involvement with peers who engage in other problem behaviours
• peer rejections
• poor social skills

Community

• community norms that promote or permit substance use and gambling
• living in impoverished neighbourhoods characterized by high crime rates and alienation
• high rates of transition/mobility
• cultural disenfranchisement

Please visit AADAC for more information.