Variations in risk and promotive factors on substance use among urban American Indian youth

Abstract

Although roughly 70% of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI) population live in urban areas, research is scarce regarding this population. As a consequence, there is limited understanding about the salient socioenvironmental factors that aid in preventing substance use among urban AI communities. This study utilized a statewide, cross-sectional, school-based survey of urban AI adolescents (N = 2,375) to (a) examine the associations between substance use and risk and promotive factors within the family and peer group, and (b) explore how these associations vary by subgroups (gender, racial/ethnic background, and grade level). Results suggest that risk factors—familial substance use and antisocial peer affiliation—were associated with higher alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. However, these findings varied by subgroup. For males, involvement with antisocial peers was associated with greater marijuana use. Involvement with antisocial peers was also positively associated with alcohol and marijuana use for multiracial/multiethnic AI adolescents and those adolescents in 10th and 12th grades. The promotive factors—supportive family environment and prosocial peer affiliation—were not universally associated with lowered substance use by subgroup. This study advances understandings of the risk and promotive factors important in reducing and preventing substance use among urban AI adolescents. Experiencing familial substance use and affiliating with antisocial peers were the salient factors associated with increased substance use, particularly for urban AI adolescents who are older, male, and with multiracial/multiethnic AI backgrounds.

Keywords:

• Urban
• American Indian
• adolescents
• substance use
• risk and promotive factors

Conflict of interest

The study sponsor played no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Stephanie Ayers wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors received a portion of their salary from the above-mentioned grant for analysis and interpretation of the data and writing the report.

Additional information

Funding

Data collection and analysis for this study was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [NIH/NIMHD] (P20-MD002316, F.F. Marsiglia, PI). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the National Institutes of Health.