Ecodevelopmental Influences on Substance Use Among Urban American Indian Youth

Most American Indian (AI) families now live in urban areas, but rigorous research is lacking on the social determinants of this population’s vulnerability to and resilience against substance.  Urban AI youth report higher rates, earlier initiation, and more severe consequences of substance use than their non-Native counterparts. Family disruption and substance abuse, stresses related to the move to urban settings, and difficulties in establishing and sustaining social and cultural connections are frequently mentioned as contributing to adverse health outcomes for urban AI youth.  Using ecodevelopmental theory, this paper examines how contextual influences operating at the peer, family, school, and neighborhood levels influence substance use among urban AI youth in Arizona. Data for this study come from the 2012 Arizona Youth Survey, a state-wide self-report survey of 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th grade students, which includes AI youth living in metropolitan urban areas (N=2,407). First, using confirmatory factor analysis, latent variables were constructed to represent potential risk and protective factors within each of the four systems of the ecodevelopmental model. For example, representing the family system (Χ²=724.29(220), p=.000; CFI=.97; RMSEA=.032) are seven latent variables: (1) positive communication, (2) family substance offers, (3) parental monitoring, (4) permissive family drug norms, (5) father-child attachment, (6) mother-child attachment, and (7) family conflict. Next, structural equation models tested the influence of the peer, family, school, and neighborhood on 30-day cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use. For cigarettes, only involvement with anti-social peers (Β=.38, p=.001) and permissive family drug norms (Β=.18, p=.001) appear to be strong and significant risk factors for 30-day use.  For alcohol, while anti-social peers (Β=.52 p=.001) and permissive family drug norms (Β=.34, p=.001) continue to be a risk factor, receiving drug offers from family members (Β=.13, p=.001) and having drugs easily available in the neighborhood (Β=.097, p=.009) also act as risk factors for 30-day alcohol use. For marijuana, while anti-social peers (Β=.48 p=.001), permissive family drug norms (Β=.42 p=.001), and having drugs easily available in the neighborhood (Β=.08 p=.05) remain risk factors, having high neighborhood involvement (Β=-.11 p=.034) and positive interactions with teachers (Β=-.16 p=.04) acts as protective factors. These findings begin to identify issues that urban AI youth and their parents face when navigating within larger socio-environmental contexts that influence the youth’s vulnerability to substance use, and point to involvement with anti-social peers and permissive family drug norms being consistent risk factors across substances.