Ethnic group differences in substance use, depression, peer relationships, and parenting among adolescents receiving brief alcohol counseling

Conceptualizing protective family context and its effect on substance use: Comparisons across diverse ethnic-racial youth

Background: Although family behaviors are known to be important for buffering youth against substance use, research in this area often evaluates a particular type of family interaction and how it shapes adolescents' behaviors, when it is likely that youth experience the co-occurrence of multiple types of family behaviors that may be protective. Methods: The current study (N = 1716, 10th and 12th graders, 55% female) examined associations between protective family context, a latent variable comprised of five different measures of family behaviors, and past 12 months substance use: alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and e-cigarettes. Results: A multi-group measurement invariance assessment supported protective family context as a coherent latent construct with partial (metric) measurement invariance among Black, Latinx, and White youth. A multi-group path model indicated that protective family context was significantly associated with less substance use for all youth, but of varying magnitudes across ethnic-racial groups. Conclusion: These results emphasize the importance of evaluating psychometric properties of family-relevant latent variables on the basis of group membership in order to draw appropriate inferences on how such family variables relate to substance use among diverse samples.

Preventing Smoking Among Hispanic Preadolescents

The present study examined the role of individualism-collectivism (IC) and acculturation in smoking prevention programs for Hispanic preadolescents. The sixth graders received a collectivist or individualist curriculum. Both programs contained knowledge-based facts about smoking. The collectivist condition included an interdependent (group-oriented) perspective of smoking, while the individualist condition had an independent (individual-oriented) perspective. Measurements assessing attitudes and behaviors were taken before and after the implementation. Compared to the individualist program, Hispanic youth in the collectivist condition reported greater awareness about the dangers of smoking, revealed more accurate and healthier perceptions, and expressed restraint in engaging in unhealthy behaviors. Acculturation effects depended on participants’ IC characteristic. This research showed the utility of cultural dimensions in health programs for Hispanic youth. It also blends basic and applied research in furthering the prevention of smoking among minority youth.