Drug free girls: Examining protective factors for abstaining from smoking and drinking through junior high school

With 54% of adolescents reporting having used cigarettes and 74% reporting having drunk alcohol by high school, drug use experimentation appears normative. However little is known about adolescents who abstain from drug use during the critical transition years of early adolescence, especially among Latina girls. This study examines protective factors for drug abstinence among urban, multiethnic girls during junior high school. The study was conducted in an urban Northeast City. The sample consisted of 734 adolescent girls who completed self-report surveys in grades 7, 8 and 9. Abstinence was defined as reporting no cigarette or alcohol use at all three data points. Univariate analyses were conducted to examine associations among social influences (mothers', fathers', sibling's, and peers' drug use; normative expectations of use; access to cigarettes and alcohol) and abstinence. Moderating effects of race/ethnicity and household structure on associations between social influences and abstinence were then tested. Findings demonstrate the importance of both peer and family influences and access to substances in protecting girls from early experimentation, however types of social influence differed by both race/ethnicity and household structure. Among Latinas, low normative expectations of adult drug use were associated with abstinence, while among girls from other racial/ethnic backgrounds significant associations were found for mothers' non-use of drugs. Likewise girls from other racial/ethnic backgrounds were more likely to have abstained throughout junior high school if they lived in two-parent households but no such associations were found for Latinas. Implications for preventive interventions will be discussed.