We’ve known for a good long while that parents have a mighty impact on their kids and teens. It’s pretty much a given, in fact; but as it turns out, parents of teens’ friends can also have a strong influence. According to new research based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, teens who had friends with authoritative moms—strict, but nice—were less likely to drink, smoke or use marijuana than their peers. “We may need to change the concept of parenting to include the indirect effects of the adolescent’s friends’ parents,” says Bruce Goldman, director of Substance Abuse Services at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York. He noted that very often troubled adolescents seek stability outside their own homes and find it in the homes and families of their friends. (Boston Globe)