Elinor B. Balka

The risks for late adolescence of early adolescent marijuana use.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to assess the relation of early adolescent marijuana use to late adolescent problem behaviors, drug-related attitudes, drug problems, and sibling and peer problem behavior. METHODS African American (n = 627) and Puerto Rican (n = 555) youths completed questionnaires in their classrooms initially and were individually interviewed 5 years later. Logistic regression analysis estimated increases in the risk of behaviors or attitudes in late adolescence associated with more frequent marijuana use in early adolescence. RESULTS Early adolescent marijuana use increased the risk in late adolescence of not graduating from high school; delinquency; having multiple sexual partners; not always using condoms; perceiving drugs as not harmful; having problems with cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana; and having more friends who exhibit deviant behavior. These relations were maintained with controls for age, sex, ethnicity, and, when available, earlier psychosocial measures. CONCLUSIONS Early adolescent marijuana use is related to later adolescent problems that limit the acquisition of skills necessary for employment and heighten the risks of contracting HIV and abusing legal and illegal substances. Hence, assessments of and treatments for adolescent marijuana use need to be incorporated in clinical practice.

Longitudinally Predicting Late Adolescent and Young Adult Drug Use: Childhood and Adolescent Precursors

OBJECTIVE To examine the childhood and adolescent personality determinants of young adult drug use. METHOD Data were obtained on children when they were approximately 5.5 (time 1; T1), 14 (T2), 16 (T3), and 22 (T4) years of age. T2-T4 interviews of subjects and their mothers assessed child personality and behavior. At T1, 976 mothers were interviewed. The analysis was based on 734 subjects. RESULTS Specific childhood and adolescent personality traits are related to stage of drug use in young adulthood. Regressions showed that (1) traits at T2 and T3 mediated the effect of traits at earlier ages on T4 drug use and (2) stage of drug use was stable from T3 to T4 despite controlling for personality. Significant interaction revealed two buffers weakening the effect of T3 drug use on T4 drug use. Many more T1-T3 personality traits, particularly low aggression, enhanced the effect of low T3 use on T4 use. CONCLUSIONS Earlier findings that childhood personality is related to adolescent personality and then to drug use were extended to young adulthood. This mediational model indicates the stability of personality across development. Despite this stability, other results suggest ways to modify drug use.

Drug Use among Puerto Ricans: Ethnic Identity as a Protective Factor

This study assesses the relationship of multiple drug risks, Puerto Rican identity, and drug use. In addition, the risk/protective and protective/protective paradigms for examining interactive effects of ethnic identity and drug risks on drug use were assessed. Structured interviews were conducted with 555 Puerto Rican males andfemales whose mean age was 19. Each risk and two ethnic variables were related to drug use. Regressions showed that cultural knowledge, being culturally active, group attachment, and identification with Puerto Ricans offset the impact of risks on drug use. Ethnic variables also enhanced the protective effect of other protective factors. These results substantiate expanding risk-buffering models to include ethnic identity and the protective role of ethnic identity for Puerto Rican youth.

DRUG USE AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS : ETHNIC IDENTITY AS A PROTECTIVE FACTOR

This study examined the multiple components of ethnic identity, the place of this ethnic identity set in the mediational model of the path to drug use predicted by our family interactional framework, and the protective role of each component of ethnic identity. The participants were 259 male and 368 female African Americans in late adolescence. They responded to a structured questionnaire in individual interviews. We found that few of the specific components of ethnic identity were significantly related as main effects to drug use. Most of the effect of ethnic identity was mediated by the family set of variables. Each of the components of ethnic identity offset risks or enhanced protective factors from the ecology, family, personality, and peer domains, thereby lessening drug use. This pattern highlights the importance of incorporating ethnic identity into drug prevention programs which serve African-American youth.

African-American and Puerto Rican drug use : A longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE To examine the interrelationship of acculturation, family, personality, ecology, and peer domains measured in adolescence as they impact drug use 5 years later and to assess the role of family variables as buffers against personality risks. METHOD Youths completed questionnaires in classrooms at T1 and were individually interviewed at T2 (mean age = 20 years). Data were analyzed separately for African-Americans and Puerto Ricans using correlations, hierarchical multiple regressions, and two-way interactions. RESULTS Most results were similar for both ethnic groups. Eighty percent of the T1 variables significantly related to T2 stage of drug use. A mediational model of the path to drug use was supported. Acculturative influences were associated with family relations, which in turn were related to personality attributes. A reciprocal relationship emerged between the personality and peer domains in their impact on drug use. Family variables primarily enhanced the effect of protective personality traits on drug use. CONCLUSIONS Stability of drug use alone cannot explain the relationship between the earlier domains and later drug use. Specific adolescent risks have long-lasting effects. The personality domain has a direct effect on later drug use despite a benign picture in the acculturation, family, and peer domains.

Similar and different precursors to drug use and delinquency among African Americans and Puerto Ricans.

Correlational and net regression techniques were used to examine the commonalities and differences in risks for later drug use and delinquency among African American and Puerto Rican adolescents. Eight-eight percent of the risks were significantly related to both problem behaviors. Within the personality, family, peer, ecology, and acculturation domains, many risks independently contributed to the prediction of each problem. Only three risks had a significantly stronger relationship to one of the problem behaviors than to the other. Finding so many common predictors supports a general dimension of problem behavior and highlights the psychosocial risks for drug use and delinquency. The commonalities suggest that interventions targeting these adolescent risks might reduce both problem behaviors.

Drug use and delinquency : Shared and unshared risk factors in African American and Puerto Rican adolescents

The shared and unshared psychosocial risk factors related to stage of drug use and delinquency were examined. The sample consisted of 655 African American and 600 Puerto Rican male and female adolescents. Net regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that adolescent stage of drug use and delinquency reflect shared and unshared risk factors. The magnitude of the risk factors for adolescent delinquency was greater than for stage of drug use. The findings support a socialization hypothesis (from parent, to personality, to behavior), and the data were congruent with a dispositional model (from child, to parent or peer, to behavior).

Trajectories of Cigarette Smoking among African Americans and Puerto Ricans from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Associations with Dependence on Alcohol and Illegal Drugs

This study predicts that heterogeneous smoking trajectories covering four time points pose differential risks for dependence on alcohol and illegal drugs in young adulthood in an African American and Puerto Rican community sample (N = 475). The trajectory analysis yielded four smoking groups: nonsmokers, maturing out smokers, late-starting smokers, and early-starting continuous smokers. The early starting continuous group was more likely to become both alcohol- and drug-dependent in young adulthood than the other groups. Late-starting smokers were at higher risk than nonsmokers for drug dependence. Interventions are necessary from preadolescence through late adolescence to reduce the numbers of early and late smokers and their specific risks for substance dependence.

SEQUENCES OF DRUG INVOLVEMENT IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND PUERTO RICAN ADOLESCENTS

This study examined stages in drug involvement of 695 African-American and 637 Puerto Rican adolescents. Analysis indicated that adolescents progress through several stages of drug involvement: beer/wine, cigarettes or hard liquor, then marijuana, and, finally, illicit drugs other than marijuana. The sequence of drug involvement for both ethnic groups appears to be both unidimensional and cumulative.

Parent Drug Use, Parent Personality, and Parenting

This study examined the relationship of parent drug use and specific parent personality traits with four indicators of the parent-child bond: affection, child-centeredness, involvement, and nonconflictual relations. The participants (N = 71) were young mothers or fathers who have participated in a longitudinal study of 1,000 children and their parents from 1975 to the present. They answered a self-administered questionnaire about themselves and their oldest child. Regression analyses indicated that the domains of parent drug use and parent personality had independent effects on most of the parent-child variables. Specific parent personality traits buffered the effect of drug use on aspects of the bond. The implications of these findings are that reducing parental drug use can have direct and positive effects on the bond and can enhance some parent personality traits, thus strengthening the bond. Protective personality characteristics can mitigate the impact of drug use on the bond.