Young Adult, Rural, African American Stimulant Users: Antecedents and Vulnerabilities

Abstract

Early initiation of substance use appears to be an alarming trend among rural minorities. This study focuses on 18- to 21-year-old African American stimulant users in the Arkansas Mississippi Delta. Most participants had no high school diploma and were unemployed; 74.5% had already been arrested. Substance use was initiated early and nearly all of the men and three-quarters of the women already met criteria for lifetime abuse or dependence. Only 18% reported that they had ever received substance abuse treatment. The results suggest that substance use interventions in rural communities will require multi-faceted strategies addressing economic, educational and healthcare disparities.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• rural
• stimulant use
• substance abuse

Supported by R01 DA 015363 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. The authors thank Christian Lynch and Patricia Savary for their help in the preparation of this manuscript.

Notes

^a χ² = 7.7, 1 = df, p < .05.

^b χ² = 11.2, 1 = df, p < .001.

SD = standard deviation.

^a N = 1; no SD or range.

^a Mean = 50; Standard Deviation = 10.

^a Men (mean = 0.7; SD = 1.0) versus women (mean = 0.2; SD = .8), t (df = 85.1) = 2.7, p < .01.

^b Men (mean = 0.3; SD = .9) versus women (mean = 0.1; SD = .2), t (df = 73.7) = 2.7, p < .01.

^c Men (mean = 3.5; SD = 4.1) versus women (mean = 1.8; SD = 2.2), t (df = 95.5) = 2.6, p < .05.