The influence of an Africentric worldview and demographic variables on drug knowledge, attitudes, and use among African American youth

Abstract

Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use are major problems in the inner cities, especially for African American youth. Africentric values may be a protective factor for negative drug outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Africentric values, spirituality, and demographic variables on drug knowledge, attitudes, and use. Participants were 189 4th‐ and 5th‐graders attending public schools in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland. Measures of Africentric values (i.e., Collective Work/Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, and Self‐Determination), spirituality, age, and whether or not the child resided in a two‐ or one‐parent household were obtained. The results of regression analyses indicated that Collective Work/Responsibility and Cooperative Economics were significant predictors of attitudes toward drugs. Collective Work/Responsibility and spirituality were significant predictors of perceived drug harmfulness. Age and spirituality were significant predictors of drug usage. Age was the only significant predictor of drug knowledge. The Collective Work/Responsibility subscale was the strongest predictor of drug outcomes. The implications for using Africentric prevention approaches for decreasing risk factors and increasing protective factors for drug use among African American youth are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Less drinking, yet more problems: Understanding African American drinking and related problems.

“…African Americans who hold stronger Africentric world views are less likely to use alcohol (Brook & Pahl, 2005) and are more likely to hold negative views toward drugs, including alcohol (Belgrave et al, 2000, 1994; Belgrave, Townsend, Cherry, & Cunningham, 1997), than other African Americans. Likewise, Herd and Grube (1996) found that high levels of Black awareness and greater involvement in Black social networks was associated with reduced drinking and reduced heavy drinking among African Americans.…”

“…Holding religious beliefs appears to provide additional protection, helping to identify those African Americans who are at reduced risk for alcohol or substance use (Brook & Pahl, 2005; Nasim et al, 2007; Stevens-Watkins & Rostosky, 2010; Zimmerman & Maton, 1992). For example, Belgrave et al (1997) found that among at-risk African American youth from an inner-city population, those with greater spiritual beliefs (i.e., attending religious services and discussing religion or spiritual topics within the home) reported less drug use than those with fewer spiritual beliefs. Moreover, religiosity has been shown to buffer the impact negative life events have on heavy drinking behaviors among youth in seventh through 10th grade (T.…”

Examination of the indirect effect of alcohol expectancies on ethnic identity and adolescent drinking outcomes.

“…For example, researchers have found that positive alcohol expectancies are influenced by perceptions of peer use, whereas negative alcohol expectancies are not (Bekman, Goldman, Worley, & Anderson, 2011). Thus, it is possible that having a greater affinity toward one’s race/ethnicity and the values associated with that culture, such as spirituality and collective work/responsibility (i.e., the idea that people of the same ethnic group are responsible for one another and should work together to improve their family and community), can bolster negative outcome expectancies but may not influence positive outcome expectancies (Belgrave, Townsend, Cherry, & Cunningham, 1997). Accordingly, minorities tend to endorse similar rates of positive alcohol expectancies as Whites by early adolescence (Hipwell et al, 2005; Meier et al, 2007; Shih, Miles, Tucker, Zhou, & D’Amico, 2010).…”

Correlates of Protective Motivation Theory (PMT) to Adolescents’ Drug Use Intention

“…Studies found that in a household with both parents, more supervision and monitoring of children can be provided, leading less drug use [24,25]. Niaz et al [26] also claimed that there were significant positive correlations between drug misuse and separated parents.…”