Project Findings
Ethnicity and Gender in Drug Use
Ethnic Similarities and Differences
These studies suggest there are more similarities than differences among the three following ethnic groups: Latino/as, Blacks, and Whites. All were most likely to receive offers from acquaintances or friends at a friends' home, use a simple no to resist offers, with relatively small repertoires of resistance strategies.
Some of the following are differences that did emerge:
- Latino/as report more drug use and were significantly more likely to be offered drugs (49% of those offered).
- Whites (27%) were more likely to be offered drugs than blacks (14%).
- Latino/as are more likely to be offered alcohol, marijuana, hard drugs and inhalants at a party when other people are around. This group is more likely to be offered substances by peer family members (brother, sister, cousin) and least likely to be offered by their parents.
- Whites are more likely to be offered cigarettes by a male or female acquaintance through simple offers at a friends' home or on the street.
- Blacks received about as many offers of marijuana as Latino/as. Otherwise, they receive less offers of each type of drugs than the other groups.
- Offers to Blacks are more likely to come from boyfriends or girlfriends in a park or by a parent and be resisted using explanations.
As expected, differences in ethnicity were related to several differences in drug experiences, with Latinos/as being placed at greater risk than the other two groups. Latinos/as reported receiving drug offers at a significantly higher rate than either Whites or Blacks. Latinas (females), in particular, were significantly more likely to be offered drugs in general than other females. These findings are consistent with studies that indicate more drug use among Latino/a adolescents, in general: among inner-city 12-year-olds, use rates are equal or higher for Latinos and Blacks, and use begins earlier. Regarding contextual factors, Whites (males in particular) were more likely to be offered drugs in the presence of a less intimate acquaintance than were other groups.
Gender
Our findings indicate that there are strong similarities between males and females. Males and females do not differ in their lifetime and last 30 day use rates. In addition, males and females share the overall patterns noted above: simple offer, simple no, offers at a friends' house.
The following differences did emerge:
- Males are more likely to be offered all types of drugs in public (i.e., at the park or on the street) and be offered them by a male acquaintance, parent, brother/male cousin, or male stranger through offers that state the benefits of use and resist by using explanations, especially those involving humor.
- When females receive offers they are more likely to be in private (i.e., a friend's home) by a female acquaintance, boyfriend, or sister/female cousin through simple offers or offers that minimize the effects of use.
Gender also was found to have important developmental implications. The drug literature commonly talks about two sets of factors involved in drug use: risk factors and resiliency factors. Risk factors are life experiences that put one at jeopardy for use and abuse. They are characteristics of one's life circumstance over which one often has no control such as the family status (i.e., living in a single parent puts one at increase risk of drug use) that make one more likely to use and abuse drugs. Resiliency or protective factors, on the other hand, allow one to overcome risk or otherwise ameliorate the debilitating effects of risk factors, thereby reducing chances of drug use and abuse. For example, contact with an adult male may reduce the risk of being raised by a single mother. In a recent study, we found the following pattern for young males:
If resiliency factors are not experienced by males prior to experimenting with drugs, they do not reduce their risk of continued use. Thus interventions designed to decrease drug abuse among males by building resiliency must be targeted very early, at least prior to age of initiation. Unfortunately, this age is often quite young. For example, the mean age of initiation for Latinos was in the 11-14 range in our research.