Adverse childhood experiences, discrimination, and substance use among Latino/a/Hispanic youth

Abstract

Underserved racial/ethnic minoritized youth disproportionately experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and discrimination, potentially leading to substance use disparities. Understanding the co-occurrence of ACEs and discrimination can identify predictors of substance use. Latino/a/Hispanic youth (N = 1,179) completed surveys from 2005-2016; ACEs and discrimination were assessed when participants were on average 21.6 and 23.9 years for substance use. Latent class analysis examined differential co-occurrence of ACEs and discrimination and regression analysis investigated their longitudinal associations with tobacco, alcohol, problematic alcohol, and marijuana use in young adulthood. A 4-class solution identified a “low adversity” (n = 378; 32.06%) group; next the “psychological abuse and discrimination” (n = 361; 30.62%); then “psychological, physical abuse and microaggressions” (n = 258; 21.88%) and “mainly microaggressions” (n = 182; 15.44%) groups. Compared to “mainly microaggressions,” the “psychological abuse and discrimination” group reported higher alcohol use (B=.316, p=.04) in young adulthood. Prevention should focus on reducing ACEs and discrimination exposure to lessen Latino/a/Hispanic youth behavioral health disparities.

Keywords:

• Adversity; behavioral health disparities; Latino/a; Hispanic; risk behaviors; adolescents; young adults

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to acknowledge the original participants of this research study. We also appreciate the constructive feedback provided by anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

Authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Compliance with ethical standards

The research reported in this manuscript is a secondary data analysis of which the original research was conducted with human subjects and was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the participating university.

Author contributions

CVG conceptualized the manuscript, performed statistical analysis, prepared initial drafts and oversaw the manuscript completion. JC, JOL and JU provided input into the study’s conceptual design, analysis and contributed to several manuscript drafts by reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Consent to participate

Consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study in accordance with the Institutional Review Board of the participating university.

Data deposition

Data are available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research public repository. Unger, Jennifer. Drug Use and Cultural Factors Among Hispanic Adolescents and Emerging Adults, Los Angeles, 2006–2016. Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-10-03. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36765.v2.

Notes

1 The authors intentionally use the label “Latino/a” and “Hispanic” instead of “Latinx” for several reasons. First, approximately 80.4% and 88% of participants in the current study called themselves “Latino/a” or “Hispanic.” Second, a 2020 Pew Research Center poll found that only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino had heard of the term Latinx (Noe-Bustamante et al., 2020) and a recent Gallup poll found that only 4% of people preferred “Latinx” as the label of choice to describe their ethnic group. Last, the term first appeared online in the early 2000s and this study did not include “Latinx” as an identity label in its 2005 and 2010 surveys.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the original data collection was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA016310; PI: Unger). This work was partially supported by funding from the Minority Fellowship Program as part of the Council of Social Work Education awarded to the first author.