The figures are part of an analysis of a survey that was carried out by the young people's charity, Catch22. The charity says there is a growing body of evidence that a good father-child relationship is key to the way young people behave whilst growing up.
It found that 39 per cent of 15-year-olds in Wales who said they did not feel very close to their fathers had tried cannabis.
This figure dropped to around 24 per cent in the group who felt close to their fathers. The statistics showed a similar trend with respect to underage drinking and smoking.
Pat Dunmore, director of Communities that Care in Wales, for Catch22, said, 'The research indicates that for children growing up in Wales, having a positive relationship with your father is just as important as having a positive relationship with your mother. We need to level the playing field and include fathers for the sake of all our children.'
Tony Ivens, fatherhood development officer at Children in Wales, said, 'This research shows for the first time specific benefits to young people in Wales of having an involved father in their lives.'
He added that more must be done 'to include fathers in the equation, if we are to give young people the best possible start in life'.
Catch22 also examined the contact that children had with their fathers and found that one in four had no contact whatsoever with their biological father.
But 86 per cent of the young people surveyed who live with their fathers indicated that they felt very close to them.
Of those not living with their father, nearly half still said that they felt very close to them.
Adrienne Burgess, research manager for the Fatherhood Institute, said it was 'extremely heartening to hear, from this study, how close children feel to their dads, and especially that so many children who don't live with their dads feel close to them'.
Further information
The full report of the analysis, 'Growing Up with Dad', will be published in May
