Intragroup xenophobic attitudes, ethnic identity, and substance use among Latinx adolescents

Abstract

This study examined intragroup xenophobic attitudes, ethnic identity, and substance use (N = 905). Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, we hypothesized that intragroup xenophobic attitudes among Latinx individuals would be associated with higher levels of substance use (SU) in early adulthood and that ethnic identity would increase the strength of that association. We found that in 10th grade, xenophobic attitudes were higher among respondents with lower ethnic identity, a longer family history in the United States, and less stress. In a longitudinal analysis, SU in emerging adulthood was highest among males, those reporting higher stress in 10th grade, and those with a longer family history in the United States. There was a significant interaction of ethnic identity and xenophobia on substance use (β = −.12, p < .001), indicating that substance use was higher among Latinxs with low ethnic identity who harbor xenophobic attitudes. Findings are explained using system justification theory because intragroup xenophobia appears to operate as a coping strategy that is maladaptive for Latinx individuals reporting low ethnic identity but somehow useful to those with high ethnic identity.

Keywords:

• Attitudes
• substance use
• xenophobia
• immigrants
• alcohol
• tobacco
• marijuana

Conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Notes

1 Some people might argue Latinxs are not immigrants in the United States because of this ethnic group’s long ancestry since the territory of California was part of Mexico until 1848. However, most recent immigrants to the United States have been Latinxs from Mexico and Central America.

2 Jost and Banaji (1994) discovered a strong tendency for people to justify unfair practices based on “just world beliefs.” We did not measure system justification directly, but we think such ideas help explain why xenophobia might prevail among immigrant groups.

3 The interaction was plotted using an online worksheet (www.jeremydawson.co.uk/slopes.htm) that plots two-way interaction effects for standardized variables. Xenophobia was entered as the moderator and ethnic identity as the independent variable. The simple slopes analysis indicated the point estimates were significantly different.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Cancer Institute (grant number P50CA180905) through a National Research Service Award and an Institutional Research Training Grant T32.