The Effects Of Cumulative Neighborhood Risk And Protective Factors On Substance Use Initiation Among Low Income Latino And African American Adolescents

Author : Emily M. May
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (127 download)

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Download or read book Substance Use in Diverse Rural Adolescents written by Emily M. May and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adolescent substance use is a serious public health concern. This dissertation elucidates individual and contextual processes of risk and resilience for substance use in diverse rural youth, who are at heightened risk for the harmful consequences of substance use but are underrepresented in research. Two complementary studies employed data from an accelerated longitudinal study of rural youth. Study 1 examined educational precursors and sequelae of marijuana use (MU) from 8th to 10th grade among youth who identified as White (N = 3,171) or Black (N = 2,139). Research has shown that educational successes are inversely associated with MU, but the developmental sequencing of these associations is not well understood. Study 1 tested bidirectional associations between MU and educational adjustment factors (i.e., grades and school engagement indicators) across the transition to high school using random intercepts cross-lagged panel models. Because schooling experiences likely differ for White and Black youth in rural areas, within-group analyses were conducted separately by race. Results showed bidirectional effects between educational adjustment and MU. Educational adjustment factors had a number of protective effects against MU (e.g., valuing education predicted less MU for Black youth; higher grades predicted less MU for White youth). The adverse effects of MU nearly all occurred around the transition to high school. Specifically, MU around the transition to high school predicted less valuing education for Black and White youth, more school behavior problems for Black youth, and lower grades for White youth. MU also predicted school behavior problems at all subsequent times for White youth. Exploratory gender analyses revealed that higher grades were linked with less MU across the transition to high school for Black boys but not Black girls. Study findings suggest that the transition to high school is a sensitive period for Black and White rural youth. Universal preventive interventions targeting social and emotional competencies (e.g., problem solving and social skills) may be useful both for preventing marijuana use and for enhancing skills that facilitate the transition to high school. Study 2 focused on risk and resilience in alcohol misuse using a diverse sample of rural youth age 11 to 17 (N = 1,648). Despite rural youth's heightened risk for alcohol misuse, research on rural youth's alcohol use is characterized by limitations, including a lack of research on neighborhood context. Youth are at greater risk for alcohol misuse when they expect positive outcomes from drinking and when they face exposure to alcohol use by parents and neighbors, consistent with social learning theory. Study 2 examined the roles of alcohol expectancies, parents' alcohol use, and neighborhood alcohol use in adolescent alcohol misuse. Social regulatory mechanisms at the levels of the family (i.e., parents' cautionary alcohol messages) and the neighborhood (i.e., informal social control) were examined as protective factors that may mitigate risks. Neighborhood rurality and gender were examined as moderators of risk and protective factors. Results showed that positive alcohol expectancies were associated with greater alcohol misuse, and this link was strongest in highly rural neighborhoods and was stronger for girls than for boys. Neighborhood adolescent alcohol use was associated with greater alcohol misuse, but neither parents' alcohol use nor neighborhood adult alcohol use presented significant risk. Neighborhood informal social control buffered parents' alcohol use, such that parents' alcohol use only predicted adolescent alcohol misuse when informal social control was low. Study findings indicate that rural youth may benefit from interventions incorporating expectancy challenging or decisional balance (to target positive alcohol expectancies) and norm referencing (to target youth's perceptions about adolescent alcohol use in rural neighborhoods). Taken together, the findings of these two studies advance knowledge on the development of adolescent substance use and improve efforts to prevent substance use in rural youth.