Parental Monitoring, Religious Involvement and Drug Use Among Latino and Non-Latino Youth in the Southwestern United States (original) (raw)
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Youth & Society, 2008
This study explores the extent to which parental and peer behaviors and norms may affect substance use, personal anti-drug norms and intentions to use drugs in a group of Mexican heritage preadolescents in the Southwest, and whether these parental and peer influences differ according to gender. Secondary data from a randomized trial of a drug prevention program was used. The sample consisted of 2,733 adolescents. The outcomes were recent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, personal anti-drug norms and intentions to use drugs. In this study, peer variables were more consistently related to the outcomes than parent variables, with the exception of parental injunctive norms which were the most predictive parent factor. Recommendations are provided to further study the protective processes that are maintained through the transition into adolescence and acculturation as a foundation for the design of resiliency-focused prevention interventions.
Substance Use & Misuse, 2010
The family is one of the most important contexts for children's development and well-being. Parents play a central role in the family, and the degree to which parents monitor their children's behaviors has been shown to be associated with fewer risky behaviors, especially substance use. Prior research on parental monitoring and substance use, however, has several limitations. Most studies have focused on older adolescents, as well as adolescents from primarily White, Euro-American heritage. Prior studies largely have been cross-sectional and unable to test if parental monitoring decreases substance use over time. This article explicitly addresses these limitations by examining a longitudinal sample of primarily Latino youth in pre-adolescence (5 th grade). Using an Ecodevelopmental framework, we hypothesized that parental monitoring will be associated with lower levels of youth substance use and more beneficial substance use intentions, norms, and attitudes. We further hypothesized that the effects of parental monitoring may differ by gender and between Latino and non-Latino youth. The data came from a school-based randomized trial of a substance use prevention program in Phoenix, AZ. To test our hypotheses, we use regression models, with adjustments for clustering and multiple imputation of missing data. The results show that parental monitoring has significant beneficial and longitudinal effects on youth's substance use and related substance use intentions, norms, and attitudes. These beneficial effects of parental monitoring are invariant to the youth's gender or Latino ethnicity, except in the case of marijuana use: parental monitoring is significantly more effective in reducing girls' marijuana use.
Journal of community psychology, 2014
A sample of 206 Mexican-heritage 7th-grade adolescents attending predominantly Mexican-heritage schools in Arizona was assessed on their linguistic acculturation, perceived parental monitoring, and substance use. One of their parents also reported on their own parental level of acculturation. While greater parental acculturation predicted greater marijuana use, the acculturation gap (child's level of acculturation over and above that of the parent) was not predictive of substance use. There was a significant acculturation gap by parental monitoring interaction for marijuana use, where the negative correlation between parental monitoring and marijuana use was attenuated for parent-youth dyads that exhibited the largest acculturation gap. This suggests that a greater parent-youth cultural distance (the acculturation gap) attenuates that protective effect of parental monitoring on youth marijuana use. Results are discussed in terms of how the acculturation gap increases the risk fo...
Journal of ethnicity in substance abuse, 2014
A sample of 189 Mexican-heritage seventh grade adolescents reported their substance use, while one of the child's parents reported parent's acculturation and communication, involvement, and positive parenting with his or her child. Higher levels of parental acculturation predicted greater marijuana use, whereas parent communication predicted lower cigarette and marijuana use among girls. A significant parent acculturation by parent communication interaction for cigarette use was due to parent communication being highly negatively associated with marijuana use for high acculturated parents, with attenuated effects for low acculturated parents. A significant child gender by parent acculturation by parent positive parenting interaction was found. For girls, positive parenting had a stronger association with lower cigarette use for high acculturated parents. For boys, positive parenting had a stronger association with reduced cigarette use for low acculturated parents. Discussio...
Journal of Substance Use, 2008
Substance use among Mexican origin, low-income youths is a serious, but under-studied problem. This study examines the relationship between the structure of Mexican origin families (i.e. nuclear, single-parent, blended or extended), and the parental monitoring, substance use expectancies, and substance use reported by pre-adolescents. Family structure did not differentiate the substance use prevalence, expectancies or parental monitoring among the 1224 low-income, Mexican-origin fifth grade participants. Parents from all family types demonstrated similar levels of parental monitoring. More importantly, family composition was not related to pre-adolescents' substance use. Other analyses showed that the relationship between substance use and certain demographic variables (e.g. gender, country of birth, language use) did not differ across family structures. The report concludes by discussing possible developmental and resiliency factors in Mexican origin families that would account for these findings.
2013
The purpose of this study was to assess the combined effects of ethnic identification and perceived parental monitoring on the substance use of a sample of 162 male and 192 female Mexican heritage seventh grade adolescents. Parental monitoring predicted lower risk for substance use. An interaction of ethnic identification by parental monitoring was observed with parental monitoring exhibiting stronger effects in decreasing use of alcohol use among boys who scored low on ethnic identification. For girls, decreased substance use was predicted by stronger parental monitoring coupled with high ethnic identification. Results are discussed in terms of how the youth's ethnic identification is a distinct process from acculturation, and how ethnic identification may operate as an added protective factor in conjunction with parental monitoring, as protective factors against adolescent substance abuse.
Journal of Community Psychology, 2011
The purpose of this study was to assess the combined effects of ethnic identification and perceived parental monitoring on the substance use of a sample of 162 male and 192 female Mexican heritage seventh grade adolescents. Parental monitoring predicted lower risk for substance use. An interaction of ethnic identification by parental monitoring was observed with parental monitoring exhibiting stronger effects in decreasing use of alcohol use among boys who scored low on ethnic identification. For girls, decreased substance use was predicted by stronger parental monitoring coupled with high ethnic identification. Results are discussed in terms of how the youth's ethnic identification is a distinct process from acculturation, and how ethnic identification may operate as an added protective factor in conjunction with parental monitoring, as protective factors against adolescent substance abuse.
The Journal of Primary Prevention, 2009
Acculturation discrepancy theory predicts that conflicting cultural preferences between adolescents and their parents will increase the adolescents’ risk for behavior problems such as substance use. This study evaluated this hypothesis in a sample of 1683 Hispanic students in Southern California who completed surveys in 9th and 10th grade. Measures included the students’ own cultural orientations and their perceptions of their parents’ preference for their cultural orientations (“Perceived Parental Cultural Expectations”—PPCE). Hispanic PPCE in 9th grade was a risk factor for lifetime, but not past-month, cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in 10th grade. The adolescents’ own Hispanic orientation in 9th grade was protective against lifetime and past-month smoking and marijuana use and lifetime alcohol use in 10th grade. The effects of the acculturation variables did not vary according to generation in the U.S. Change in acculturation between 9th and 10th grade was statistically significant but small in magnitude. Increases in parent–child Hispanic acculturation discrepancy (i.e., the difference between the adolescents’ own cultural orientations and their PPCE, with adolescents perceiving that their parents wanted them to be more Hispanic oriented than they actually were) from 9th to 10th grade were associated with an increased risk of substance use. Family-based interventions for acculturating Hispanic families may be useful in decreasing the likelihood of substance use among Hispanic adolescents.