Cultural Protective Factors for Community Risks and Substance Use Among Rural African American Adolescents

Abstract

Relatively little attention has been afforded to protective factors for community-level risks among non-urban populations. This study examined the extent to which traditional cultural attitudes and behaviors of 137 African American adolescents (ages 12–17) from a rural community moderated the relationship between perceived community disorganization and substance use behaviors. Results from hierarchical linear regression revealed that traditional cultural attitudes and behaviors were differentially related to community disorganization and adolescent substance use. In terms of protective influences, religious beliefs and practices and traditional family practices moderated the effect of community disorganization on substance use. Specifically, religious beliefs and practices demonstrated a protective-stabilizing effect as community disorganization increased; traditional family practices demonstrated a protective but reactive effect. Attitudes of cultural mistrust increased youth's susceptibility to substance use as community disorganization worsened—vulnerable and reactive. The findings underscore the importance of examining the link between cultural and contextual factors in an attempt to understand the etiology of substance use among rural African American adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescents
• African Americans
• protective factors
• risks

Notes

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

In their article entitled “Conceptualizations of Resilience: A Critical Evaluation and Guide for Future Work,” Luthar et al. (2000) described protective-stabilizing as an attribute or characteristic that provides stability in competence despite increasing risk; protective-enhancing as a characteristic that augments competence with increasing risk; protective but reactive as an attribute that is generally provides protection, but less so as risks increase; vulnerable-stable as a characteristic that is disadvantageous for individuals and remains relatively constant across risk contexts; and vulnerable and reactive as the disadvantage of the characteristic increases as risks heighten.