Racial/Ethnic Differences in Illicit Substance Use: A Temporal-Ordered Test of General Strain Theory

Abstract

This longitudinal study applied general strain theory to elaborate specific stressful events’ lagged effects on risk of illicit substance use among non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic adolescents, and relatedly evaluated the moderating role of race/ethnicity in explaining illicit use. Data were drawn from five waves representing 9 years (2002–2010) of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), totaling 16,868 person-waves, and we engaged temporal ordering and generalized estimating equations (GEE) for panel data in STATA for data analysis. Results showed specific events affected risk of illicit substance use differentially across racial/ethnic groups. Strains commonly encountered in disorganized spaces affected non-Hispanic White’s risk. Measured strains did not affect non-Hispanic Black respondents and findings for Hispanic respondents point to the family as a possible strain. Results indicated legal drug use and depression increased risk of illicit use greatly. Race/ethnicity’s role in illicit use’s associations with several variables illustrates differential implications for racial/ethnic groups in policy and preventive interventions.

Gender and Childhood Victimization: A Longitudinal Study of Heavy Drinking in Young Adulthood

“…Our findings suggest that direct victimization in childhood is a critical predictor of later heavy drinking behavior for only female adolescents and young adults, and the same risk-generating effect was not found for our measure of vicarious or indirect victimization as expected for either gender group. Previous research outlines the role of victimization, among a tapestry of other adverse childhood experiences in generating conditions conducive to heavy drinking behavior [48,[71][72][73][74] often through a pathway leading from the traumatic experience to lasting or lagged psychological distress [27,41,49,51,75]. Our findings are strongly suggestive of childhood as a major life stage in which direct victimization has powerful and lasting results for women and girls, acting on the risk of heavy drinking, even controlling for adolescent victimization and more recent stressful events.…”

“…Heavy drinking prevention efforts in adolescents and young adults must acknowledge the social elements of drinking behavior that could be leading young adults through peer enticement or pressure to be successful [95]. The prevalence of cases in which depressive symptoms exist alongside heavy drinking points to the need for carefully constructed programming able to address the underlying traumatic experiences or other risk factors positioning these possibly endogenous outcomes [41,44]. Relatedly, trajectories for future programming require the careful inclusion of the intersection of sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity, alongside but not instead of race [96][97][98].…”

“…associated with deviance, including substance use [20,38]. For example, empirical research has found that use/misuse of alcohol can function as a coping strategy among children, adolescents, and adults exposed to stress from a variety of sources [39][40][41].…”

“…In 1997, the researchers interviewed 8984 persons age 12-18. Other descriptions of NLSY97 are included in previous research [41,66].…”

Changes in Online Illegal Drug Buying during COVID-19: Assessing Effects due to a Changing Market or Changes in Strain using a Longitudinal Sample Design

“…Overall, existing literature finds general support for the claim that strain is related to illegal drug use (Agnew, 1992;Agnew & White, 1992;Drapela, 2006;Harrell, 2007), even if the relationship between strain and illegal drug use may be conditioned by race (Ash-Houchen & Lo, 2020;Peck et al, 2018), sex (Drapela, 2006;Glassner & Cho, 2018;Mazerolle, 1998), social bonds, and deviant affiliations (Mazerolle & Maahs, 2000;. Strain also appears to be related to online drug purchases.…”