Acculturation and Attitudes About Substance Abuse among Latinos and African American Youth

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Acculturation and Attitudes About Substance Abuse
among Latinos and African American Youth

• Javier Luna

• Mentor Edward J Callahan, Ph.D.
• Department of Family and Community Medicine
• Ctr. for Health Services Research in Primary Care
• U. C. Davis Medical Center

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INTRODUCTION

• Substance abuse threatens adolescent health
• Many minority families live under conditions
  which place their children at increased risk of
  drugs and alcohol
• Increased frequency and severity of drug use
  increases sexual behavior and risk
• Latino and African Americans are
  disproportionately affected by HIV

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DEFINITIONS

• Acculturation the process of adjustment for a
  person from one culture as they learn about a
  second cultures beliefs, values, and lifestyle
• Latinos individuals of Cuban American, Mexican
  American, Puerto Rican, South and Central
  American ancestry regardless of race
• African Americans persons born in the U.S. of
  African or Caribbean descent

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BACKGROUND

• Rates of substance abuse are higher for
  acculturated Latinos than for those who have low
  acculturation
• Many conflicting models of acculturation exist
• Differing definitions of acculturation produce
  variability in results
• Little research done on acculturation in African
  Americans

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CUTURAL ADAPATION MODELS
Dominant Majority
Transitional
Multidimensional
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CUTURAL ADAPATION MODELS
Bicultural
Orthogonal Identification
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OBJECTIVES

• To document the relationship between
  acculturation and attitudes about substance abuse
• To test whether identifying with both culture of
  origin and Anglo culture leads to more or less
  resilient attitudes against substance abuse
• To explore whether parallel issues are found
  among African Americans

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METHODS

• Subjects 60 Latino and 60 African American youth
  ages 11-14
• Measure Orthogonal Cultural Identity Scale
• Measures pattern of monocultural, bi-cultural,
  and multi-cultural identification
• Rejects notion that affiliation with one culture
  produces equivalent loss of affiliation with
  another culture
• High internal consistency
• High concurrent validity
• High discordant validity

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METHOD

• Attitudes measured with the Government
  Performance and Results Act (GPRA)
• 9 items on attitudes towards substance abuse
• 3 items on self assessment of behavioral control
  to refrain from substances in the future
• Data Analysis
• Initial cross-tabulations of data
• Cross-ethnicity comparisons by t-test
• Comparisons of high- and low- acculturation
  groups using t-tests
• Building linear regression models predicting
  stronger anti-drug attitudes, noting
  contributions of acculturation, gender, and
  ethnicity

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HYPOTHESES

• That affiliation with any culture reduces risk of
  drug use more than affiliation with no culture
• That affiliation with culture of origin reduces
  risk of drug use more than affiliation with
  majority culture
• That bi-cultural individuals will have stronger
  attitudes against substance abuse than those
  affiliated with only one culture

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

• Edward J Callahan Ph.D.
• T.R.U.E. Project team
• Ray Shiraishi
• Ellen Robert Ph.D.
• U.C. Davis McNair Scholars Program

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Acculturation and Attitudes About Substance Abuse
among Latinos and African American Youth

• Javier Luna

• Mentor Edward J Callahan, Ph.D.
• Department of Family and Community Medicine
• Ctr. for Health Services Research in Primary Care
• U. C. Davis Medical Center