The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #46081

Juan R. Ramirez, MA¹, William D. Crano, PhD¹, Ryan Quist, PhD¹, Michael Burgoon, PhD², Eusebio Alvaro, PhD², and Joseph Grandpre, PhD³. (1) Psychology Department, Claremont Graduate University, 123 E. Eighth St., Claremont, CA 91711, (2) Health Communication Research Office, University of Arizona, 1522 E. Drachman St., Tucson, AZ 85721-0475, (3) Health Communication Research Office, Arizona Cancer Center, 1522 E Drachman Street, Tucson, AZ 85721-0475

This study investigated the relationship between marijuana and inhalant use and several cultural and demographic factors in a sample of 1,094 Hispanic and Anglo adolescents from southwest Arizona. Participants were from 22 rural and urban elementary, middle, and high schools. Overall, participants were evenly distributed across gender (567 males, 527 females) and grade level (36.5% elementary, 30.7%, middle school, and 32.8% high school). Outcome measures assessed lifetime and 30-day marijuana and inhalant use. Predictors and covariates included in logistic regression analyses were region, grade, gender, drug use knowledge, acculturation, familism, and parental monitoring. The data indicate that, with few exceptions, the culture-based factors in this study are important predictors of marijuana and inhalant 30-day and lifetime use. After controlling for grade, gender, and region, analysis revealed that drug use was negatively associated with knowledge, familism, and parental monitoring. Among Hispanics, high acculturation was associated with low marijuana usage but high inhalant use. Positive family relations and parental monitoring, when combined with knowledge about drug effects, provide potent preventive protection against drug abuse. Results suggest that familism and monitoring alone may not be sufficient to protect adolescents from drug abuse; parental effects are maximized when coupled with high levels of knowledge. The results also demonstrate that the strategy used to analyze the relationship between acculturation and marijuana use can affect interpretation. Linear analytic models relating acculturation and drug use may prove misleading. In our analyses, grouping Hispanics into three groups (high, moderate, low) revealed a negative (and slightly curvilinear) relationship.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to
• describe the manner in which cultural factors influence patterns of adolescent drug use, and
• discuss the relative merit of different approaches to the assessment of acculturation vis-à-vis drug use.

Keywords: Hispanic, Culture

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.