Family Matters

Abstract

Given the focus of the Journal this month, the Book Forum features Jessica Lahey's The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence. Lahey is a former teacher and writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, and Washington Post, focusing mostly on parenting and development. Her guide to decreasing children's risk of substance use disorders (SUDs) and building a sense of self-efficacy is reviewed this month by psychiatry resident Nat Mulkey and their faculty mentor, Amy Yule. While the Monitoring the Future survey shows that the COVID-19 era has featured an unprecedented drop in teen reports of illicit substance use,² Lahey's book seems particularly important as parents/families are poised for a resurgence in teen SUDs for many reasons. As caregivers return to work, youth are apt to have more and more unsupervised time. Furthermore, with youth increasingly contending with mental health challenges,³ they are at increased risk for coping through unhealthy means including substance use.