The importance of family factors to protect against substance use related problems among Mexican heritage and White youth☆
Introduction
Recent estimates show 16% of the U.S. population, which equates to 50.5 million people, self-identify as Hispanic or Latino. Approximately 63% or 31.8 million of those were either born in Mexico or trace their ancestry to Mexico and self-identify as Mexican (Ennis et al., 2011). In addition to comprising the largest proportion of the Latino population, those who have Mexican heritage are also substantially younger than the general U.S. population with a median age of 25 years compared to 36 years (Dockterman, 2011).
Recent prevalence reports indicate the rapidly growing and youthful Latino population in the U.S. has high rates of substance use during adolescence similar to those among White youth. For example, approximately 33% of Latino youth and 28% of White youth in the tenth grade have used an illicit drug in the past year (Johnston et al., 2010). A similar pattern has emerged for alcohol use; approximately 34% of tenth grade Latino youth and 32% of White youth have used alcohol in the past 30 days. These high levels of illicit drug and alcohol use are causes for concern because substance use during adolescence can lead to heavier substance use and the potential for abuse later in life (Anthony and Petronis, 1995, Chen et al., 2009, McGue and Iacono, 2008, Schmid et al., 2007, Wittchen et al., 2008). Empirical evidence indicates substance abuse may also lead to longer periods of unemployment (Hoffman et al., 2007), physical health problems (Kandel et al., 1986, Keaney et al., 2011), the dissolution of social relationships, and many other negative outcomes (Anderson et al., 2010). Given the higher prevalence of alcohol and other drug use among Latino and White youth compared to Asian and African American youth in the U.S., the rapid growth of the Latino population, and the potential for this use to contribute to behavioral problems, it is especially important to focus on these two racial/ethnic groups.
Most research focuses on the frequency of substance use; less is known about factors directly resulting from use, such as problems with work, school, relationships, or risky sexual behavior. That is, why do some youthful substance users experience such outcomes while others do not? The current study helps address this gap by examining whether family-based protective factors differentially reduce the likelihood of work, school, relationship, or other substance use-related behavioral problems from occurring among Mexican-heritage and White adolescents before these problems contribute to substance abuse and dependence.
Research has identified the family as a significant source of protection against drug and alcohol abuse among adolescents (Chen et al., 2010, Hawkins et al., 1992). Developing healthy family relationships can enhance the ability of parents to communicate prosocial norms to their children (Rankin and Kern, 1994), allowing parents to establish and enforce sanctions against adolescents’ undesirable behaviors, such as substance use. Positive attachment to parents has consistently been identified as a protective factor against illicit drug and alcohol use among adolescents (Kostelecky, 2005, van der Vorst et al., 2006). In addition, research has shown that parents’ attentiveness to adolescents’ behavior and associations through various monitoring techniques can decrease substance use involvement (Chapple et al., 2005, Coombs and Landsverk, 1988). Moreover, family based treatment programs, such as Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), focus on enhancing family relationships and have been successful in reducing juvenile delinquency and adolescent substance use and abuse (Liddle, 2010). Research has also shown MDFT to be a successful treatment program for adolescents from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds (Henderson et al., 2010), further demonstrating the effectiveness of strengthening the family to reduce substance use. Most research to date, however, has been conducted with relatively small samples and typically has not examined ethnic differences in the protective effects that the family may have against behavioral problems related to substance use among adolescents.
There is reason to believe that parent–child relations may be more protective against substance use for Latinos than White youth, given the traditionally high value that Latinos place on the family (De la Rosa, 2002, Szapocznik et al., 2007). Strong family bonds have been shown to protect Latino adolescents from substance use and engagement in deviant behaviors (Gil et al., 1994, Ramirez et al., 2004). For example, parental warmth and family cohesion have been found to exert a greater protective effect against Latino youths’ substance use than for youth in other racial/ethnic groups (Broman et al., 2006, Vega et al., 1998). Ellickson and Morton (1999) found that Latino adolescents who sought parental help with their personal problems were less likely to engage in illicit drug use compared to those who did not. However, some studies have reported contradictory findings demonstrating a lack of ethnic differences in the protective effects of parental monitoring on early adolescent problem behaviors and substance use (Windle et al., 2010, Yabiku et al., 2010). Inconsistencies may be due to relatively small sample sizes, grouping of heterogeneous ethnic subgroups together (i.e., Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Cuban all treated as Latino), and low reliabilities of some family factor measures.
Latino family relationships may also vary by immigrant generation with family socialization practices becoming influenced by US culture and eventually diverging from the generally high degree of family warmth characteristic of traditional cultural values (Kwak, 2003). On the other hand, research has shown parental monitoring and family support to be similar between first and second generation Latino immigrant groups (Trejos-Castillo and Vazsonyi, 2009). Taken as a whole, the literature suggests that family factors are protective against substance use among both Latino and White youth, but the relationship may be stronger among Latino youth because of the stronger collectivistic orientation of Latino culture which emphasizes warm, close supportive family relationships that take precedence over the needs of the individual (Fuligni et al., 1999), and therefore may offer greater protection against adolescent risky behaviors.
Research also suggests ethnic differences in parenting and family practices may vary according to adolescents’ gender, differentially influencing levels of substance use for adolescent girls and boys. According to Latino family-based cultural traditions adolescent girls are encouraged to stay close to the home and contribute to household care-taking activities while boys receive fewer restrictions giving them more freedom outside the home (Yabiku et al., 2010). This situation could foster much closer supervision and stronger ties to the family unit for Latina adolescents (Cota-Robles and Gamble, 2006), leading to less substance use among girls compared to boys.
The current study contributes to this literature with several unique characteristics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine family and parenting factors as they relate to drug- and alcohol-related problems among adolescents who have initiated alcohol and/or drug use. To address this gap, this study examines the association of three family factors that have been previously identified as protective against problem behaviors with the likelihood of problems related to drug- or alcohol use among adolescents who have initiated substance use. Research to date has offered valuable insights related to protective factors against substance use among Latino youth, but owing to small sample sizes, many of these studies have found it necessary to combine subgroups with different cultures and immigration histories that may affect their substance use patterns (e.g., adolescents of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Honduran, Mexican descent, etc. are often combined into a single heterogeneous group labeled “Hispanic” or “Latino”). We focus on Mexican-heritage adolescents, the largest Latino group in the U.S., to avoid ambiguities that can stem from combining ethnic subgroups. We use longitudinal data from a large nationally representative sample to examine the relationship between three key family variables (parent–child attachment, family cohesion, parental control) and work, school, relationship, or other substance use-related behavioral problems related to drug and alcohol use among Mexican heritage and White adolescents.
Based on prior empirical findings, we hypothesize that (1) parent–child attachment, family cohesion, and parental control will be negatively associated with the likelihood of experiencing problems related to alcohol and drug use for both Mexican heritage and White adolescents; (2) the effects of the three family variables will be more protective for Mexican heritage youth compared to White youth, and (3) more protective for females compared to males in both racial/ethnic groups.
Section snippets
Background
Data for the current study were collected as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative, school-based study examining health-related and risk behaviors among 90,118 adolescents in grades 7–12 at Wave I (Mullan et al., 2008). Schools included for data collection provided rosters of all students enrolled. From these rosters, a sample of 20,745 adolescents was drawn to complete in-depth interviews at home. The analyses presented here used
Descriptive analyses
Among alcohol users, the Mexican heritage adolescents were older (t = 4.99, p < .001), reported lower GPAs (t = 8.17, p < .001), and had higher levels of parental control (t = 6.39, p < .001) than their White counterparts (Table 1). A greater proportion of Mexican heritage adolescents came from two-parent households compared to White youth (χ2 = 5.61, p = .018), but smaller proportions of Mexican heritage youths’ parents had finished high school (χ2 = 7.32, p = .007) or had education beyond high school (χ2 = 198.82,
Aggregate sample analyses
The findings suggest that certain family factors may help to reduce the likelihood of adolescents experiencing problems stemming from their substance use. In the aggregate sample, family cohesion, parent–child attachment, and parental control predicted a lower probability of experiencing problems related to drug use while family cohesion and parental control protected against alcohol-related problems. Strong family bonds have been shown to reduce adolescent risk-taking (Parker and Benson, 2004
Role of funding source
This study was supported by Grant Number P20MD002316 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities or the National Institutes of Health; the NIMHD had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to
Contributors
Albert M. Kopak took primary responsibility for writing this article and undertook the statistical analyses. Angela Chia-Chen Chen conceptualized the study, supervised all aspects of its implementation, and contributed to the writing. Mary Rogers Gillmore contributed to study conceptualization and offered significant editorial input. Steven A. Haas contributed to study conceptualization and to the statistical analyses. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Conflict of interest
All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
This study uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for
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Supplementary materials for this article can be found by accessing the online version of this paper.