Interaction of Gender Roles and Acculturation on Substance Use in Mexican American Adolescents

Hispanic/Latino adolescents have higher rates of use of several legal and illegal substances than non-Hispanic White and African American adolescents, with greater acculturation to mainstream U.S. society being associated with higher rates of substance use.  The relationships between adaptive and maladaptive aspects of gender roles in predicting substance use were examined in a sample of 955 (450 boys, 505 girls) Mexican American 7th and 8th grade adolescents participating in a school-based substance use intervention.  For girls, greater aggressive masculinity was associated with greater cigarette and alcohol use, while greater affective femininity was associated with lower alcohol and cigarette use.  These effects were mediated by adaptive coping, which is predictive of decreased substance use.  For boys, greater assertive masculinity and aggressive masculinity were associated with greater alcohol and marijuana use, while greater affective femininity was associated with lower alcohol and marijuana use.  These effects were mediated by antisociality, which is predictive of increased substance use.  Linguistic acculturation moderated the pathways from affective femininity to substance use, such that the negative relationship between affective femininity and substance use was particularly strong for boys low in acculturation.  The present analyses confirmed the importance of gender roles and their interaction with acculturation in predicting substance use in Mexican American adolescents.  The analyses also were important in delineating functional mechanisms through which these gender roles have their effects, with implications for the design of interventions to reduce substance use in this population.