THE EFFECTS OF PARENTAL DIVORCE ON ADULT TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION

I use data from the 1977-1994 National Opinion Research Council Genera l Social Survey to examine the impact of parental divorce on the alcoh ol and tobacco consumption of adult offspring. Divorce greatly increas es the likelihood of being a smoker and, for men, a problem drinker. P arental remarriage completely offsets the effects of parental divorce on men's drinking but does not substantially affect cigarette use. Res pondent socioeconomic characteristics accounted for a portion of the r elationship between parental divorce and smoking but did not affect ra tes of problem drinking. Social control and psychosocial adjustment-tw o established explanations for the effects of parental divorce-could n ot adequately explain my findings.