Is there a Relationship between Family Structure and Substance Use among Public Middle School Students?

We investigated the relationship between family structure and substance use in a sample of 2,138 public middle school students in a southern state. The CDC Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey was utilized and adjusted logistic regression models were created separately for four race/gender categories (African American females/males, and Caucasian females/males) to examine associations among selected drug use variables (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and inhalants). Analyses were adjusted for social economic status. Results suggested differences (p ≤ .05) among race/gender groups for the protective effect of living in an intact family (both mother and father, real or adoptive) regarding substance use among middle school students. In addition, family structure appeared to have a stronger relationship with substance use for Caucasians as opposed to African American adolescents. Caucasian adolescents living in cohabitated family households were more likely to report substance use, when compared to those living in intact two-parent households. Adolescents who are undergoing parental divorce may need special attention as they transition into new family structures.     

Contextualizing Acculturation: Gender, Family, and Community Reception Influences on Asian Immigrant Mental Health

This article investigates differences in the mental health among male and female immigrants from an ecological perspective, testing the influences of both individual acculturation domains and social contexts. Data from the first nationally representative psychiatric survey of immigrant Asians in the US is used (N = 1,583). These data demonstrate the importance of understanding acculturation domains (e.g., individual differences in English proficiency, ethnic identity, and time in the US), within the social contexts of family, community, and neighborhood. Results demonstrate that among immigrant Asian women, the association between family conflict and mental health problems is stronger for those with higher ethnic identity; among immigrant Asian men, community reception (e.g., everyday discrimination) was more highly associated with increases in mental health symptoms among those with poor English fluency. Findings suggest that both individual domains of acculturation and social context measures contribute to immigrant mental health, and that it is important to consider these relationships within the context of gender.     

The protective effects of ethnic identity for alcohol and marijuana use among Black young adults

This study examined the extent to which individual differences in alcohol and marijuana use among 167 Black university students could be accounted for by degree of ethnic identity. After controlling for year in school, sex, and friends' substance use, higher levels of ethnic identity indeed were found to be significantly related to lower beer/hard liquor use, wine use, and marijuana use, accounting for approximately 31%, 6%, and 4% of the variance, respectively. For marijuana use, however, friends' substance use accounted for more of the variance (13%) than did ethnic identity (4%).     

Ethnic identity and risky health behaviors in school-age Mexican-American children

The study examined the relationship between ethnic identity and risky health behaviors in 1,892 Mexican-American students (M age= 14.6, SD= 1.35; 50.3% male) in South Texas. The Ethnic Identity Scale assessed ethnic identity and questions from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey measured risky health behaviors (mixed use of alcohol and drugs, heavy drinking, driving under the influence, regular marijuana use, regular cigarette smoking, lack of regular exercise, not eating breakfast regularly, and carrying a gun or knife to school). Logistic regression tested the relationships between ethnic identity and report of risky health behaviors controlling for potential confounders (sex, free school lunch status, grade, and self-reported school grade). Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and confidence intervals were calculated. Results indicated that being associated with Mexican-American cultural identity was significantly associated with a decreased mixed use of alcohol and drugs (AOR= .97), heavy drinking (AOR= .98), and regular marijuana use (AOR= .97). A stronger ethnic identity was protective against engaging in risky health behaviors among these Mexican-American adolescents.     

The Cross-Temporal Associations between Rumination Subtypes and Substance Use in Adolescence: Exploring the Moderating Role of Gender

Several studies have linked rumination to substance use. However, only one study thus far has focused on the differential associations between the subtypes of rumination (brooding and reflection) and substance use. This previous study was cross-sectional in nature, so less is known about how these variables are related across time. To address this issue, the present three-wave longitudinal study investigated the cross-temporal associations between subtypes of rumination, alcohol consumption, drug consumption and substance use problems, using cross-lagged path analyses. In addition, the study investigated whether the cross-lagged paths of interest were moderated by gender. The sample consisted of 309 adolescents (62.1 % boys) between the ages of 13 to 20 years old (M _age at T1?=?16.82 years, SD?=?1.32). Results indicated that substance use problems predicted increases in levels of brooding and reflection over time. These effects were moderated by gender so that substance use problems only predicted increases in levels of brooding and reflection in girls. In contrast to our expectations, higher levels of brooding predicted a decrease in alcohol consumption over time, and this effect was not moderated by gender. Cross-lagged analyses also showed that alcohol consumption predicted an increase in substance use problems. All results emerged independently of depressive symptoms. The findings of the present study add to the growing body of literature on the associations between rumination subtypes and substance use in adolescence, and highlight the importance of using longitudinal designs to address the issue of directionality.     

Associations Between Mixed-Gender Friendships,Gender Reference Group Identity and Substance Use in College Students

We investigated the associations between same-gender friendship, gender reference group identity, and substance use in college students (54 % male, M age?=?19.23, SD?=?1.23) from the northeastern United States using an online survey. Male students reported greater weekly marijuana, but not alcohol use than female students. Regression analyses revealed that having a greater proportion of same-gender friendships was associated with greater weekly alcohol use for male students and lesser weekly alcohol and marijuana use for female students. Gender reference group identity was negatively associated with weekly marijuana use for male and female students. For female students, gender reference group identity mediated the association between proportion of same-gender friendships and weekly marijuana use. Our study highlights the importance of considering the social context (e.g., the gender of friends) and individual variables relating to gender (e.g. gender reference group identity) in substance use research. Our findings fit within social constructionist models of social development that suggest participation in gendered contexts (e.g., same-gender or other-gender-peer contexts) over time cue gender-typed behaviors such as using marijuana.     

Parental Knowledge and Substance Use Among African American Adolescents: Influence of Gender and Grade Level

Parental knowledge is defined as parental awareness and information about a child’s activities, whereabouts, and associations that is obtained through parental monitoring, parental solicitation, or self-disclosure. Increased parental knowledge is generally associated with lower adolescent substance use; however, the influence of various contextual factors, such as adolescent gender and grade level is not well understood, particularly for different racial or ethnic groups. In the present study, we used Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling analyses to examine the longitudinal relationship of parental knowledge to adolescent substance use in the context of adolescent gender and grade level among 207 urban African American adolescents in grades 6–11. Results indicated that increased parental knowledge is associated with a concurrent lower likelihood of substance use across all types of substances examined (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, other drug use, and any drug use), but it did not predict changes in substance use 1 year later for the entire sample. However, analyses by gender and grade level showed that for boys and middle school youth, parental knowledge was a protective factor for increases in substance use across 1 year. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention and health promotion interventions for adolescent substance use among African American youth.     

Gender, Immigrant Generation, and Ethnocultural Identity

The relation of gender and immigrant generation to ethnocultural identity was examined in an ethnically diverse sample of young adults from immigrant families. We hypothesized that gender differences in ethnocultural identity would occur among the second-generation (those born in the receiving society) daughters and sons of parents who were immigrants. Participants completed several measures that assessed identity and self-construal, including ethnocultural identity. As predicted, among participants who were the second-generation children of immigrants, gender differences occurred on ethnic identity achievement (defined as seeking to learn about and understand one's ethnicity) and reported behavioral commitment (e.g., maintaining cultural practices). Women endorsed these 2 components of ethnic identity more strongly than men did. Second-generation women and men whose parents were immigrants did not, however, differ in a third component of ethnocultural identity, namely, pride and attachment to one's ethnocultural group. The implications of this pattern of findings are discussed.     

Gender,Gender Roles,and Personality: Gender Differences in the Prediction of Coping and Psychological Symptoms

Path models of the effects of gender, gender roles, and personality variables (achievement and affiliation orientation, locus of control, empathy) on coping and symptoms were tested to explore the risk and protective effects of gender roles and personality on psychological symptoms, and to test whether or not gender roles or personality accounted for gender differences in coping and symptoms. In a sample of university undergraduates (35% Asian American, 59% European American or Caucasian, 6% other ethnic/racial background), masculinity predicted lower depression but higher antisocial and substance use problems, whereas femininity predicted lower antisocial and substance use problems. Personality variables did not account for the effects of gender or gender roles on coping or symptoms, but rather gender roles and personality each predicted unique variance in those variables. Significant gender differences in the relations among gender roles and personality emerged; however, there were no gender differences in the relations between coping and symptoms. Findings highlight the importance of studying gender differences in the effects of gender roles and personality on coping and symptoms, because it appears that gender roles and personality operate differently for males and females.     

Ethnicity and gender in late childhood and early adolescence: group identity and awareness of bias

The current study examined awareness of gender and ethnic bias and gender and ethnic identity in 350 African American, White/European American, and Latino/Hispanic students (Mage = 11.21 years, SD = 1.59) from the 4th, 6th, and 8th grades of diverse middle and elementary schools. The study collected (a) qualitative data to best capture the types of bias that were most salient to children and (b) daily diaries and individual measures to examine the multiple components of children's gender and ethnic identities. Results revealed ethnic, gender, and grade-level differences in awareness of ethnic and gender bias. Overall, more children were aware of gender bias than ethnic bias. This effect was most pronounced among White/European American youths. Among those in 4th grade, African American and Latino youths were more likely to be aware of ethnic bias than were White/European American youths. Analyses also examined how awareness of bias was related to gender and ethnic identity. For example, children who had a salient and important gender identity, and a devalued ethnic identity, were less likely than other children to be aware of ethnic bias.     

Perceptions of ethnic discrimination by minority and majority early adolescents in the Netherlands

This research investigates perceptions of discrimination among ethnic majority and minority group early adolescents (aged between 10 and 12 years) living in the multi‐ethnic context of the Netherlands. In two studies (N = 679 and N = 2630), personal and group discrimination was examined in terms of name‐calling and social exclusion, and in relation to ethnic identity and family allocentrism. All early adolescents reported more group than personal discrimination. The personal‐group discrimination discrepancy (PGDD) was found independently of ethnic group, gender, allocentrism, and ethnic identity. Hence, the PGDD seems a more general phenomenon that already exists among early adolescents and across different domains. However, minority group participants perceived far more discrimination overall than majority group early adolescents, and the Turkish participants reported more discrimination than the Moroccan and Surinamese early adolescents. Furthermore, family allocentrism was positively related to perceived discrimination among all ethnic groups in Study 2 and among the Dutch in Study 1. In agreement with ethnic identity development models, strength of ethnic identity was not related to perceived discrimination. Ethnic identity was, however, positively related to allocentrism. In both studies, ethnic minority group participants had higher scores for allocentrism and for ethnic identity than majority group participants. In addition, boys had stronger ethnic identity than girls and ethnic identity was negatively associated with perceived discrimination for the boys but not for the girls. It is concluded that in order to understand early adolescents' perception of discrimination it is necessary to pay attention to basic (cognitive) tendencies that cross ethnic lines, to cultural and status differences between the majority group and ethnic minorities as a category and between ethnic minority groups, and to within‐group differences or individual level variables.     

Peer victimization and self‐esteem of ethnic minority group children

An experimental study was carried out among Turkish children (10 to 12 years) living in the Netherlands for examining the relationship between peer victimization and self‐esteem. Related to the social psychological distinction between personal and social identity, a distinction was made between personal and ethnic self‐esteem and between personal and ethnic victimization. It was found that personal self‐esteem negatively predicted personal victimization but not ethnic victimization, and ethnic self‐esteem tended to predict ethnic victimization but not personal victimization. Furthermore, peer victimization had a negative causal effect on momentary self‐feelings independent of the level of self‐esteem. In addition, peer victimization based on ethnic group membership had a somewhat stronger negative effect on self‐feelings than victimization based on personal characteristics. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting substance use behavior among South African adolescents: The role of leisure experiences across time

Using seven waves of data, collected twice a year from the 8th through the 11th grades in a low-resource community in Cape Town, South Africa, we aimed to describe the developmental trends in three specific leisure experiences (leisure boredom, new leisure interests, and healthy leisure) and substance use (cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana) behaviors and to investigate the ways in which changes in leisure experiences predict changes in substance use behaviors over time. Results indicated that adolescents' substance use increased significantly across adolescence, but that leisure experiences remained fairly stable over time. We also found that adolescent leisure experiences predicted baseline substance use and that changes in leisure experiences predicted changes in substance use behaviors over time, with leisure boredom emerging as the most consistent and strongest predictor of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Implications for interventions that target time use and leisure experiences are discussed.     

Concurrent and longitudinal effects of ethnic identity and experiences of discrimination on psychosocial adjustment of Navajo adolescents

In this study, we examined concurrent and longitudinal relations among Navajo adolescents' ethnic identity, experiences of discrimination, and psychosocial outcomes (i.e., self-esteem, substance use, and social functioning). At Time 1, 137 Navajo adolescents (67 male, 70 female), primarily in Grades 9 and 10, completed a written survey assessing ethnic identity, discrimination experiences, and a range of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Two years later, 92 participants completed the same survey again. Ethnic and cultural identification was assessed via the Multiethnic Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992) and the Orthogonal Cultural Identification Scale (OCIS; Oetting & Beauvais, 1990). At Time 1, MEIM Affirmation and Belonging, MEIM Exploration, and OCIS White American identification all demonstrated strong, positive associations with adaptive functioning for male and female adolescents, whereas discrimination experiences were linked to lower self-esteem and social functioning for male adolescents. By Time 2, fewer significant concurrent associations between ethnic identity and psychosocial functioning scores remained, and discrimination experiences emerged as the most consistent correlate of poorer psychosocial functioning for male adolescents. Controlling for Time 1 psychosocial functioning, relatively few direct effects of ethnic and cultural identification variables predicted psychosocial functioning longitudinally, but discrimination experiences demonstrated strong and consistent longitudinal links with boys' substance use. Finally, interaction effects assessing the moderating influence of ethnic and cultural identification on negative links between discrimination and psychosocial functioning suggested that embeddedness in and connection to Navajo culture and, in some cases, connection to White American culture, served as a buffer to the negative effects of discrimination experiences.     

Person factors associated with suicidal behavior among African American women and men

This study compared person risk factors among the following groups of low-income, African American adults in an urban, public hospital: (a) suicide attempters and nonattempters, (b) male and female attempters, and (c) all 4 groups (50 female attempters, 50 female nonattempters, 50 male attempters, and 50 male nonattempters). Participants completed psychological distress, aggression, substance use, cognitive processes, religiosity/spirituality, and ethnic identity measures. Compared with nonattempters, attempters reported more psychological distress, aggression, substance use, and maladaptive coping strategies; less religiosity/spirituality; and lower levels of ethnic identity. Male attempters endorsed more substance use than female attempters. No person risk factors differentiated among the 4 groups. Assessment of person risk factors and implementation of commensurate culturally competent interventions are recommended.     

Substance Use Progression from Adolescence to Early Adulthood: Effortful Control in the Context of Friendship Influence and Early-Onset Use

In a sample of 998 ethnically diverse adolescents, a multiagent, multimethod approach to the measurement of adolescent effortful control, adolescent substance use, and friendship influence was used to predict escalations to early-adult tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use by ages 22-23. Structural equation modeling revealed that adolescent substance use and friends' substance use tended to be highly correlated and together were robust predictors of a problematic pattern of usage for all substances in early adulthood. In addition, the adolescent effortful control construct directly predicted progressions to problematic use of tobacco and marijuana, but not for alcohol. In the alcohol model, effortful control interacted with the construct of substance use lifestyle (based on adolescent alcohol use and friends' substance use) when predicting problematic alcohol use in early adulthood. Results held when comparing across genders and across ethnic groups. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing adolescent self-regulation in interventions designed to treat and prevent early-adult substance abuse.     

Ethnic identity and personal well-being of people of color: a meta-analysis

This article summarizes research examining the relationship between the constructs of ethnic identity and personal well-being among people of color in North America. Data from 184 studies analyzed with random effects models yielded an omnibus effect size of r = .17, suggesting a modest relationship between the 2 constructs. The relationship was somewhat stronger among adolescents and young adults than among adults over age 40. No differences were observed across participant race, gender, or socioeconomic status, which findings support the general relevance of ethnic identity across people of color. Studies correlating ethnic identity with self-esteem and positive well-being yielded average effect sizes twice as large as those from studies correlating ethnic identity with personal distress or mental health symptoms. Ethnic identity was thus more strongly related to positive well-being than to compromised well-being. Overall, the corpus of research reviewed consisted of correlational designs; limited scholarship has addressed causal mechanisms, mediating factors, or psychological functions of ethnic identity across different social contexts.     

Ethnicity and adolescent substance use

This study focuses on diverse ethnic differences among adolescent substance use, utilizing selected items from the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-Adolescent version (SASSI-A). Data were gathered from a large-scale, cross-sequential study of adolescents during the 1993-1996 school years. Exploratory analyses were conducted for 3,711 students on the basis of their responses to a self-administered survey. Results indicated significant ethnic and gender differences for specific SASSI-A items and factor scores, with Hawaiian, "Other," and Caucasian students reporting higher scores than Japanese students and greater scores for female than male students. These findings suggest the need to develop culturally sensitive substance use prevention and treatment strategies that should also take gender differences into consideration for adolescents in Hawai'i.     

Self-Esteem, Discrimination, and Coping Among Refugees: The Moderating Role of Self-Categorization

The present study examines the relationship between the personal self and ethnic identity among Iranian refugees living in the Netherlands. The extent to which participants considered themselves to be typical members of their ethnic minority group moderated the relationship between (a) personal self-esteem and ethnic self-esteem; (b) perceived personal discrimination and group discrimination; and (c) ethnic self-esteem and the use of emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies for coping with discrimination. Participants who saw themselves as typical Iranians showed a stronger association between personal and ethnic self-esteem, less personal/group discrimination discrepancy, and a relationship between ethnic self-esteem and coping with discrimination. In addition, participants favored problem-focused coping over emotion-focused coping, and perceived greater group discrimination than personal discrimination overall.     

Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter

Recent developments in evolutionary psychology suggest that living among others of the same ethnicity might make individuals happier and further that such an effect of the ethnic composition on life satisfaction may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that White Americans had significantly greater life satisfaction than all other ethnic groups in the US and this was largely due to the fact that they were the majority ethnic group; minority Americans who lived in counties where they were the numerical majority had just as much life satisfaction as White Americans did. Further, the association between ethnic composition and life satisfaction was significantly stronger among less intelligent individuals. The results suggest two important factors underlying life satisfaction and highlight the utility of integrating happiness research and evolutionary psychology.