Abstract
Latino/a adolescents are a growing part of U.S. public high schools, and many experience stressors related to their ethnicity within their schools that can contribute to risky behaviors such as drug use. Marijuana remains the most common illicit drug that Latino/a adolescents use. Using a sample of 121 Latino/a 9th grade students, the current study examined pathways linking perceived peer- and educator-perpetrated ethnic discrimination with marijuana approval and use. Findings revealed that perceived peer-perpetrated ethnic discrimination was linked with lower school belonging (βapproval model = −.21, p = .031; βuse model = −.18, p = .013), and lower school belonging was related to higher marijuana approval (β =−.22, p = .030), but not use. Additionally, those students with lower school belonging were more likely to experience greater depressive symptoms (βapproval model = −.45, p < .001, β use model = −.50, p < .001) and had more close friends who smoked marijuana (βapproval model = −.28, p = .002, βuse model = −.35, p < .001). Higher depressive symptomology was associated with more marijuana use (β = .32, p = .008). Having more substance-using friends was linked with higher marijuana approval (β = .24, p = .010) and use (β = .44, p < .001). Educator-perpetrated ethnic discrimination was not associated with any of the constructs under study. Findings highlight both internalizing and externalizing pathways through which peer-perpetrated ethnic discrimination may contribute to Latino/a adolescents’ marijuana approval and use. Results have the potential to inform intervention efforts aimed at curtailing Latino/a adolescents’ marijuana use.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Volkow ND, Baler RD, Compton WM, Weiss SR. Adverse health effects of marijuana use. N Engl J Med. 2014;370(23):2219–27.
National Institute on Drug Abuse at The National Institutes of Health. Monitoring the future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2018. 2019. https://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2018.pdf. Accessed 5 May 2019
Kann L, McManus T, Harris WA, et al. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States. 2017. MMWR Surveill Summ 2018; 67(No. SS-8):1–114.
de Brey C, Musu L, McFarland J, Wilkinson-Flicker S, Diliberti, M, Zhang A, Branstetter C, Wang X: Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups 2018 (NCES 2019–038). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/. Accessed on February 10, 2020.
Child Trends. Immigrant children. 2018. https://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=immigrant-children. Accessed on February 10, 2020.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Policy alert: Controlled Substance-related activity and good moral character determinations, 2019. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/policymanual/updates/20190419-ControlledSubstanceViolations.pdf. Accessed on May 5, 2019.
Crosnoe R, Benner AD. Children at school. In: Lamb ME, Lerner RM, editors. Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science. 7th ed. Hoboken, NJ, US: Wiley; 2015. p. 268–304.
Benner AD, Wang Y, Shen Y, Boyle AE, Polk R, Cheng YP. Racial/ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: a meta-analytic review. Am Psychol. 2018;73(7):855–83.
Brown BB, Larson J. Peer relationships in adolescence. In: Lerner RM, Steinberg L, editors. Handbook of Adolescent Psychology. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Wiley; 2009. p. 74–103.
Baumeister R, Leary M. The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychol Bull. 1995;117(3):497–529.
Stock M, Gibbons F, Beekman J. Social exclusion and risky health decisions. Addictions: A Social Psychological Perspective; 2015. p. 76–97.
Roche C, Kuperminc G. Acculturative stress and school belonging among Latino youth. Hisp J Behav Sci. 2012;34(1):61–766.
Basáñez T, Unger JB, Soto D, Crano W, Baezconde-Garbanati L. Perceived discrimination as a risk factor for depressive symptoms and substance use among Hispanic adolescents in Los Angeles. Ethn Health. 2013;18(3):244–61.
Benner A, Wang Y. Adolescent substance use. The role of demographic marginalization and socioemotional distress. Dev Psychol. 2015;51(8):1086–97.
Gibbons FX, Gerrard M, Cleveland MJ, Wills TA, Brody G. Perceived discrimination and substance use in African American parents and their children: a panel study. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2004;86(4):517–29.
Brody G, Kogan S, Chen Y. Perceived discrimination and longitudinal increases in adolescent substance use: gender differences and mediational pathways. Am J Public Health. 2012;102(5):1006–111.
Benner AD, Wang Y: Racial/ethnic discrimination and adolescents’ well-being: the role of cross-ethnic friendships and friends’experiences of discrimination. Child Dev. 2017;88(2):493–504
Benner AD. The Transition to high school: current knowledge, future directions. Educ Psychol Rev. 2011;23(3):299–32828.
Benner AD, Graham S. The antecedents and consequences of racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence: does the source of discrimination matter? Dev Psychol. 2013;49(8):1602–13.
Fisher C, Wallace S, Fenton R. Discrimination distress during adolescence. J Youth Adolesc. 2000;29(6):679–95.
Rivas-Drake D, Hughes D, Way N. A preliminary analysis of associations among ethnic-racial socialization, ethnic discrimination, and ethnic identity among urban sixth graders. J Rese Adolesc. 2009;19(3):558–84.
Gottfredson GD. The Effective School Battery: User’s Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources; 1984.
Kovacs M. Children’s Depressive Symptoms Inventory Manual. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems; 1992.
National Institute on Drug Abuse at The National Institutes of Health. National survey results on drug use from the monitoring the future study, 1975–1992. 1993. https://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol1_1992.pdf. Accessed on May 5, 2019.
Muthén L, Muthén B. Mplus User's Guide. 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Muthen & Muthen; 2012.
Enders CK. Applied missing data analysis. New York,NY: Guilford Press; 2010.
Thoemmes F, MacKinnon D, Reiser M. Power analysis for complex mediational designs using Monte Carlo methods. Str Equ Model: A Multidiscip J. 2010;17(3):510–34.
Hooshmand S, Willoughby T, Good M. Does the direction of effects in the association between depressive symptoms and health-risk behaviors differ by behavior? A longitudinal study across the high school years. J Adolesc Health. 2012;50(2):140–7.
Lu W. Adolescent depression: national trends, risk factors, and healthcare disparities. Am J Health Behav. 2019;43(1):181–94.
Wasserman J, Palmer RC, Gomez MM, Berzon R, Ibrahim SA, Ayanian JZ. Advancing health services research to eliminate health care disparities. Am J Public Health. 2019;109(S1):S64–S6969.
Eckstein D, Rasmussen P, Wittschen L. Understanding and dealing with adolescents. Individ Psychol. 1999;55:31–52.
Schreiter S, Pijnenborg G. Aan Het Rot M: Empathy in adults with clinical or subclinical depressive symptoms. J Affect Disord. 2013;150(1):1–16.
Baxter J, Vehik K, Johnson SB, Lernmark B, Roth R, Simell T. Differences in recruitment and early retention among ethnic minority participants in a large pediatric cohort: the TEDDY Study. Contemp Clin Trials. 2012;33(4):633–40.
U.S. Department of Justice. Drug offenders in federal prison: Estimates of characteristics based on linked data. 2015. Monitoring the future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2018. 2019. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dofp12.pdf. Accessed on February 13, 2020.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge funding support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to Farin Bakhtiari (F31AA027158), the William T. Grant Foundation to Aprile Benner, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Aprile Benner (5K01HD087479) and the Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin (P2CHD042849). Opinions reflected in this paper are of the authors and not necessarily of the granting agencies.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bakhtiari, F., Boyle, A.E. & Benner, A.D. Pathways Linking School-Based Ethnic Discrimination to Latino/a Adolescents’ Marijuana Approval and Use. J Immigrant Minority Health 22, 1273–1280 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-01022-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-01022-5