Journal article
Neighborhood Effects on Youth Substance Use in a Southwestern City
Sociological perspectives, v 50(2), pp 273-301
2007
PMID: 21339890
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
This study examines neighborhood influences on alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use among a predominantly Latino middle school sample. Drawing on theories of immigrant adaptation and segmented assimilation, we test whether neighborhood immigrant, ethnic, and socioeconomic composition, violent crime, residential instability, and family structure have differential effects on substance use among youth from different ethnic and acculturation backgrounds. Data are drawn from self-reports from 3,721 7
th
grade students attending 35 Phoenix, Arizona middle schools. Analysis was restricted to the two largest ethnic groups, Latino students of Mexican heritage and non-Hispanic Whites. After adjusting for individual-level characteristics and school- level random effects, only one neighborhood effect was found for the sample overall, an undesirable impact of neighborhood residential instability on recent cigarette use. Sub-group analyses by individual ethnicity and acculturation showed more patterned neighborhood effects. Living in neighborhoods with high proportions of recent immigrants was protective against alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use for Latino students at different acculturation levels, while living in predominantly Mexican heritage neighborhoods (mostly non-immigrants) was a risk factor for alcohol and marijuana use for less acculturated Latinos. There were scattered effects of neighborhood poverty and crime, which predicted more cigarette and alcohol use, respectively, but only among more acculturated Latinos. Inconsistent effects confined to bilingual and more acculturated Latinos were found for the neighborhood's proportion of single mother families and its residential instability. No neighborhood effects emerged for non-Hispanic White students. Results suggested that disadvantaged neighborhoods increase substance use among some ethnic minority youth, but immigrant enclaves appear to provide countervailing protections.
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Details
- Title
- Neighborhood Effects on Youth Substance Use in a Southwestern City
- Creators
- Stephen Kulis - Sociology Program, and Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3701Flavio Francisco Marsiglia - School of Social Work, and Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85287-4320Diane Sicotte - Department of Culture & Communication, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104Tanya Nieri - Sociology Program, and Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3701
- Publication Details
- Sociological perspectives, v 50(2), pp 273-301
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Sociology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000247228300005
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-34250784569
- Other Identifier
- 991014878302604721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Sociology