Up in Smoke: Neighborhood Contexts of Marijuana Use from Adolescence Through Young Adulthood

Abstract

The current understanding of the neighborhood contexts wherein adolescent substance use emerges remains limited by conflicting findings regarding geographic variation in, and neighborhood effects on, both the prevalence of and risk factors for such use. Using four waves of longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health [n = 18,697 (51% female, 54% White, 24% Black, 16 % Hispanic, 7% Asian, 2% American Indian/Other)], latent class analysis, and growth curve modeling, this study identified distinct neighborhood types--patterned by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and geography--and explored how trajectories of adolescent and young adult marijuana use differed across neighborhood types. The results demonstrated complexity in neighborhood contexts, illustrating variation in trajectories of marijuana use across neighborhood types heretofore unobserved in neighborhoods research, and largely unexplained by key individual, family, and peer risk and protective factors. This approach highlights how social structural forces intersect and anchor trajectories of youth substance-using risk behavior

Does the Residential Landscape Contextualize Friendships? Examining the Causes and Consequences of Affiliating with Older Friends

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The Role of the Rural Context in the Transition to Adulthood: A Scoping Review

“…The integration of rural in the discussion and implications sections of the articles was evidenced in the following ways: research and theoretical implications, policy implications, using the rural context of the study to provide potential explanations for results, and comparisons with other rural populations and/or studies. Research and theoretical implications (n = 6) included supporting theories of rural poverty (Berry & Hirschl, 2017 ); an explanatory model of reasons for and against drinking and driving (Greene et al, 2018 ); geography and cultural contexts (rural) that shape orientations towards marriage for young adults (Kefalas et al, 2011 ); strength-based, resilience models that foster positive development among rural youth (Murry et al, 2014 ); different socialization processes for rural male and female adolescents that influence future aspirations and contributes to the rural brain drain (Sharp et al, 2020 ); and conceptualizing neighborhood risk of problem behaviors using the dimensions of race/ethnicity, class, and geography (rural) (Warner, 2016 ). The authors of these empirical studies discussed their findings in relation to the contributions to theories and models or providing support for further research pathways into contextual influences of behavioral health and social development outcomes.…”

The Physical and Social Environments as Determinants of Health: Implications for Substance and Behavioral Addictions

“…The local neighborhood environment directly influences youth risk behaviors, including drug and alcohol use and abuse; however, there are notable differences between urban and rural behavior patterns, which change over time (Galea et al, 2005). Recent surveillance data in the USA indicates that rural adolescents may use substances at the same or higher rates than their urban counterparts and that, in addition to alcohol, the use of methamphetamine, smokeless tobacco, and inhalants is higher among rural youth (Warner, 2016). A large national survey of adolescents conducted in 2000 suggested that heroin use was comparable between urban and rural areas and that other forms of illicit drug use were more likely in urban environments (Galea et al, 2005).…”