Integrating Mainstream and Subcultural Explanations of Drug Use Among Puerto Rican Youth

• NCJ Number: 148542
• Author(s): O Rodriguez; J-L Recio; M de la Rosa
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 22 pages
• Grant Number(s): 7R01DA05630; 2PO1MH30569
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; National Institute on Drug Abuse; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Chapter prepared for NIDA research monograph, Epidemiologic Research on Minority Youth: Methodological Issues and Recent Research Advances, 1992

Annotation

This Puerto Rican Adolescent Survey involved a two-wave (1986 and 1987) representative sample of Puerto Rican males between 12 and 19 years of age from the South Bronx, New York, and tested two hypotheses: (1) adherence to traditional Hispanic culture would inhibit delinquency through the greater role accorded to institutional authority (parents and teachers); and (2) acculturation would exert powerful but indirect effects on drug use and delinquency through its influence on conventional and deviant peer bonding.

Abstract

Sampling yielded 1,170 eligible males, and 1,077 (92 percent) initially agreed to participate in the survey. Respondent loss in the second wave was less than 17 percent, resulting in an overall response rate of 76 percent. The Integrated Social Control model of Elliott and associates was applied to determine if acculturation was linked to problem behavior. Predictive measures included family and school strain, family and school normlessness, family and school involvement, attitudes toward deviance, involvement with drug-using peers, and previous drug use and delinquency. Consistent with the importance of family in Puerto Rican culture, family involvement had significant direct effects on drug use. Prior drug use and age also had relatively strong effects. Acculturation had indirect effects on drug use on factors related to conventional and deviant peer bonding. For example, acculturated youth were less involved with their families and more involved with deviant peers. In addition, acculturation had strong effects on drug use. In general, findings confirm the important role of acculturation in Hispanic problem behavior but indicate no attenuating effects of biculturalism on deviance. 93 references and 4 tables