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ABSTRACT
To address increases in substance use among Mexican adolescents, particularly females, US prevention programs are being adapted to the Mexican cultural context. Understanding how responses to substance offers by Mexican adolescents are shaped by gender and relationships to those making offers is an important step in the adaptation process. Using data from Guadalajara, Mexico middle schools (N = 431), this pilot study tested for gender differences in the use of several drug resistance strategies commonly taught in US substance abuse prevention interventions. Results indicated that the drug-resistance strategies of Mexican early adolescents differ by gender, type of substance offered, and the youth's relationship to the offeror. Contrary to previous research on older Mexican adolescents, in this sample, females received more substance offers from age peers than males did, and employed a wider repertoire of drug-resistance strategies, including active strategies such as direct refusals. Gender differences in use of the strategies persisted after controlling for number of offers received. There were gender differences in the conditional effects of greater exposure to offers. A larger volume of alcohol and cigarette offers predicted females' use of direct strategies more strongly than for males, but less strongly than males for marijuana offers. Females' use of drug resistance strategies was more strongly associated with offers from family adults, siblings, and cousins, while males' use of strategies was predicted more strongly by offers from nonfamily adults. Interpretations and prevention implications are discussed in light of changing gender norms in Mexico and gendered patterns of substance use.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [Grant number P20MD002316].
ORCID
David Becerra 0000-0002-7450-8531
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Stephen Kulis
Stephen Kulis (PhD, Columbia University, 1984) is Cowden Distinguished Professor of Sociology in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University (ASU), and an Affiliated Faculty member in the School of Social Work, the Justice and Social Inquiry program, and the Women and Gender Studies program. He serves as Director of Research at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center at ASU, an NIH-funded Center of Excellence for health disparities research. His research focuses on cultural processes underlying health disparities, such as the role of gender and ethnic identity in youth drug use and prevention interventions; cultural adaptation of drug prevention programs for ethnic minority youth; contextual neighborhood and school level influences on youth substance use; gender and racial inequities in professional careers; and the organizational sources of ethnic and gender discrimination. He is currently leading two studies in partnership with the urban American Indian communities of Arizona. Each is a cultural adaptation of existing prevention programs—one for adolescents and another for parents—to create culturally responsive interventions that strengthen the capacities of native families in urban areas to protect their children from substance use and other risky behaviors.
Jaime M. Booth
Jaime M. Booth (PhD, Arizona State University, 2014) is Assistant Professor of Social Work in the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses broadly on social determinants of health disparities and more specifically on the role of identity and social contexts in stress and drug use among low-income minority groups. Her current research explores how individual identities interact with neighborhood contexts to impact health and the use of user-generated content (big data) to understand neighborhood effects on stress and substance use. The goal of her research is to support the development of prevention interventions that build on individual's strengths, address risk, and communicate within communities existing cultural frame.
David Becerra
David Becerra (PhD, Arizona State University, 2008) is an Assistant Professor and Southwest Borderlands Scholar in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the adverse effects of social and economic inequality among Latinos, particularly in the areas of migration and immigration, academic achievement, and health.