Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 24, Issue 5, September–October 1999, Pages 607-631
Addictive Behaviors

Predictors of polydrug use among four ethnic groups: A 12-year longitudinal study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-4603(99)00027-1Get rights and content

Abstract

We examined adolescent risk and protective constructs associated with adult polydrug use among four ethnic groups. Both mean and relational differences among the constructs were examined by ethnic group. Teenage polydrug use was a significant predictor of adult polydrug use for Caucasians, African-Americans, and Latinos. Although this relationship was not evident for Asians, teenage alcohol use increased adult cigarette use, and early religiosity increased adult alcohol use. Early parental support/bonding predicted less adult Polydrug Use for Caucasians. For Latinos, general social conformity and low liberalism decreased cigarette use as an adult. In general, the implications of the results are that prevention strategies should emphasize the reduction of teenage drug use to decrease adult polydrug use among Caucasians, Latinos, and African-Americans. Future research should examine other possible risk and protective conditions related to adult polydrug use among diverse populations.

Section snippets

Exposure to predictive conditions related to drug use

There are at least two ways to examine ethnic differences for factors related to drug use: exposure to and the association between risk and protective conditions (Newcomb, 1995). The differential vulnerability among ethnic groups regarding the exposure to risk or protective influences for drug use has been documented in the literature Maddahian et al. 1986a, Newcomb & Bentler 1986, Vaccaro & Wills 1998, Vega et al. 1993, Wallace & Bachman 1993. For example, there is compelling evidence from a

Associational differences by ethnic group

The second approach considers the degree of association between exposure to risk or protective conditions and drug involvement and how these associations may differ across ethnic groups (Newcomb, 1995). Greater exposure to risk factors does not necessarily lead to greater drug use or to the same extent for all populations. Newcomb et al. (1987) found that Asian adolescents exhibited lower associations between the risk factor index and cocaine and cannabis use than Caucasians, African-Americans,

Polydrug use

Despite the understanding that there are many predictors of polydrug use, there is a paucity of research explicating the causal relationship with polydrug use over significant periods of time. To date, it is unclear how much adolescent polydrug use and other risk conditions contribute to adult polydrug use among diverse ethnic groups. Comparative studies demonstrating that drug use in adolescence is an important marker of future persistent drug use in adulthood are rare, especially prospective

Predictors of drug use

To describe accurately the predictors of drug use or abuse, one must consider the larger context within which drug use or abuse occurs (Newcomb, 1997a). For example, Vega et al. (1993) examined ethnic differences on the prevalence of risk on 10 factors representing family, psychosocial, peer, and deviant influences. Low family pride was a more prevalent risk factor for Whites, family substance use was least among Cubans, parent smoking was highest for Whites and Cubans, whites were at least

Purpose of study

The main purpose of this study was to examine the differential relationship between teenage risk and protective influences and adult polydrug use among four distinct ethnic groups (e.g., Caucasians, African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians) across the critical life-transitional period between adolescence and adulthood. Whereas previous examinations of drug use predictors inferred drug use patterns from cross-sectional data, our analyses will provide direct evidence of the relations between

Sample

Data were gathered from a community sample of 529 adults participating in a longitudinal study of adolescent growth, development, and drug use Newcomb 1992, Newcomb 1997a, Newcomb & Bentler 1988a. Initially, 1,634 students from 11 Los Angeles County schools participated in the study. Since then, several waves of data have been collected. This study includes data from Year 5 (1980) and Year 17 (1992). Table 1 provides a complete description of this sample. The sample was ethnically diverse (over

Cross-sectional analyses

Cross-sectional analyses were used to describe the sample during adolescence and to capitalize upon a larger sample size for each of the four ethnic groups. For example, the cross-sectional sample for Caucasian adolescents (n = 675) was almost double the prospective Caucasian sample (n = 357).

Discussion

In this study, we relied on both adolescent cross-sectional and longitudinal data, spanning 12-years from adolescence to adulthood, to describe the risk and protective influences on adult Polydrug Use. First, the CFA model was not consistent across the four ethnic groups as two of the constructs were not the same for three of the four ethnic groups. Second, there were associational differences among the latent constructs, during adolescence and adulthood, especially between Caucasians and the

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  • Cited by (0)

    This research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, grant no. DA 01070.

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