Dissertations & Theses - Gradworks

Abstract:

As linguistic acculturation increases, so do rates of Latino youths' substance use, suggesting there are important cultural shifts in norms, beliefs, and social influences that occur during the process of acculturation that increase risk for substance use. The current study examined whether the traditional cultural values of familism, traditional gender role orientation, and respect, combine with delinquent peer association and gender to mediate the effects of linguistic acculturation and linguistic enculturation on substance use for Mexican origin early adolescents. This model was tested in a series of ordinary least squares regression analyses using cross-sectional data. The sample of 598 Mexican-American and Mexican immigrant 7^th graders was selected from school rosters obtained from four Phoenix inner city middle schools. Measures were based on adolescent self-report. Results revealed that familism and respect were negatively related and delinquent peer association was positively related to the number of substances ever used. Gender was also found to be associated with youth substance use, with boys reporting a greater number of substances used than girls. A significant interaction effect of delinquent peer association by gender on youth substance use was found. This relation demonstrated that while delinquent peer association positively predicted substance use for both genders, this effect was significantly greater for boys. Results also revealed that delinquent peer association mediated the negative relation between Spanish language use (linguistic enculturation) and number of substances ever used but traditional values did not. Further, although a significant positive relation between English language use (linguistic acculturation) and youth substance use was found, no significant mediation effects were found for this link. The results of this study replicate the link between linguistic cultural orientation and substance use and indicate that linguistic acculturation and enculturation are both predictive. Study findings also highlight the powerful role of deviant peers and suggest that traditional cultural values also play a role in reducing risk for substance use in early adolescence.