Social Demographics, Marginalization, and Adolescent Substance Use

社会人口统计、边缘化和青少年药物使用

• 批准号: 8176949
• 负责人: Aprile Dawn Benner
• 金额: $ 7.7万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8176949
• 关键词: Academy; Achievement; Address; Adolescence; Adolescent; Affect; Alcohol abuse; Alcohol consumption; Alcohol or Other Drugs use; American; Americas; Area; Belief; Child; Complex; Data; Desegregation; Development; Distress; Drug abuse; Drug usage; Ecology; Education; Environment; Equation; Ethnic Origin; Etiology; Family; Feeling; Gender; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic Risk; Goals; Health; Health behavior; Hostility; Individual; Inequality; Intervention; Interview; Life Cycle Stages; Link; Loneliness; Longitudinal Studies; Low income; Marijuana Smoking; Mediating; Methods; Minority; Minority Groups; Mission; Modeling; Pain; Peer Group; Personal Satisfaction; Plant Roots; Policies; Prejudice; Prevention; Preventive Intervention; Process; Public Health; Race; Relative (related person); Reporting; Research; Risk; Sampling; Schools; Social Justice; Socialization; Societies; Stress; Students; Substance abuse problem; Techniques; Testing; Validation; Variant; Youth; adolescent substance use; coping; demographics; drinking; economic impact; health disparity; improved; member; peer; public education; racial and ethnic; response; social; socioeconomics; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Substance use during adolescence is an oft-studied phenomenon, but this research generally fails to take an ecological perspective on etiology. Schools are a primary context of socialization during adolescence, and understanding how school composition matters for substance use is critical for prevention efforts. Promoting school diversity has been a major legislative goal, but the unintended public health consequences of such policies are often ignored-diversity has empirically established academic benefits, yet it is not without its challenges, particularly regarding the socioemotional well-being of children and adolescents whose lack of demographic "fit" with their schools puts them at risk for social marginalization. Whether this demographic misfit (i.e., having few same-race/ethnic or same-socioeconomic peers in school) is risky for substance use has yet to be explored, although both theory and empirical evidence suggests that it might. The general goal of this project, therefore, is to examine whether, why, and when students who do not have a critical mass of same-race/ethnicity peers or peers of similar SES in school are more likely to drink and use drugs. Here, I use data from Add Health to explore three specific areas of inquiry. First, I will identify adolescents who are at the numeric margins of their schools both racially/ethnically and socioeconomically and compare their substance use to that of adolescents who have greater representation of same-demographic peers. Such research will highlight the potential unintended health risks of major academically-focused school reforms. Second, I will test two mechanisms by which marginalization might influence substance use: a) whether marginalization initiates feelings of misfit that, in turn, contribute to adolescents' substance use and b) whether the link between marginalization and substance use is stronger for students in schools and peer groups in which substance use is more normative. Third, the project will explore the extent to which the marginalization threshold (defined as 15% or more same-demographic peers) effectively captures the critical mass necessary for protection against substance use and lack of fit. Although the National Academy of Education recommends the 15% same- demographic peer threshold to protect against the harmful effects of marginalization, their report acknowledges that this estimate needs empirical validation. As a departure from previous, small-scale studies that explore the critical mass question, this project uses a large, nationally representative sample to empirically identify the critical mass needed to protect against social marginalization. Early substance use and abuse exert pernicious effects across the life course, and this project has the potential to expand our understanding of the implications of school composition for such risky health behaviors. By elucidating the mechanisms by which marginalization affects substance use, the project will highlight critical points of intervention, and by identifying the contextual antecedents of early substance use, the project will inform educational policy efforts that seek to better promote the full academic benefits of diversity in America's public schools. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study examines how demographic mismatches between adolescents and schools can contribute to risky health behaviors-alcohol and drug use-that can disrupt life course trajectories. The study is policy relevant, as it recognizes that diversity, although important for academic development, might also carry risks that need to be identified and addressed in order for the full educational benefits of school diversity to be realized. By examining an etiology of substance use-whether substance use represents a form of coping with numeric marginalization and social misfit and/or signifies an effort to fit in by matching the substance use norms of one's school and peer group-the study will highlight critical points of intervention to promote healthier well- being for American youth.

描述（由申请人提供）：青少年时期的物质使用是一个经常研究的现象，但这项研究通常未能从生态学的角度对病因学进行研究。学校是青少年社会化的主要场所，了解学校组成对药物使用的影响对预防工作至关重要。促进学校的多样性一直是一个主要的立法目标，但这种政策的意想不到的公共卫生后果往往是unrealed-diversity经验建立了学术利益，但它不是没有挑战，特别是关于儿童和青少年的社会情感福祉的缺乏人口“适合”与他们的学校使他们处于社会边缘化的风险。这种人口统计学上的不匹配（即，在学校里没有几个同种族/族裔或同社会经济地位的同龄人）对使用药物的风险尚待探讨，尽管理论和经验证据都表明可能存在这种风险。因此，这个项目的总体目标是研究是否，为什么，以及当学生谁没有一个临界质量的同种族/民族的同龄人或同龄人的类似SES在学校更有可能喝酒和使用毒品。在这里，我使用Add Health的数据来探索三个具体的调查领域。首先，我将确定青少年在种族/民族和社会经济上都处于学校的数字边缘，并将他们的物质使用与具有更大代表性的青少年进行比较。这些研究将突出强调以学术为重点的重大学校改革的潜在意外健康风险。第二，我将测试两种机制，边缘化可能会影响物质用途：a）边缘化是否启动的感觉不适合，反过来，有助于青少年的物质使用和B）是否边缘化和物质使用之间的联系更强的学生在学校和同龄人群体中，物质使用是更规范的。第三，该项目将探讨边缘化阈值（定义为15%或更多的相同人口统计学同龄人）有效地捕获保护免受物质使用和缺乏健康所需的临界质量的程度。虽然国家教育学院建议15%的相同人口的同龄人门槛，以防止边缘化的有害影响，他们的报告承认，这一估计需要实证验证。与以往探讨临界数量问题的小规模研究不同，本项目使用了一个具有全国代表性的大型样本，以经验为依据确定防止社会边缘化所需的临界数量。早期物质使用和滥用在整个生命过程中产生有害影响，这个项目有可能扩大我们对学校组成对这种危险健康行为的影响的理解。通过阐明边缘化影响药物使用的机制，该项目将突出干预的关键点，并通过确定早期药物使用的背景前因，该项目将为教育政策努力提供信息，以更好地促进美国公立学校多样性的全面学术利益。 公共卫生关系：这项研究探讨了青少年和学校之间的人口不匹配如何导致危险的健康行为酒精和毒品的使用，这可能会破坏生命历程的轨迹。这项研究具有政策相关性，因为它认识到多样性虽然对学术发展很重要，但也可能带来风险，需要查明和解决这些风险，以便充分实现学校多样性的教育效益。通过研究物质使用的病因--物质使用是否代表了一种应对数字边缘化和社会不适应的形式，和/或意味着通过匹配学校和同龄人的物质使用规范来适应的努力--这项研究将突出干预的关键点，以促进美国青年的健康福祉。