Abstract
This article reports the results of a descriptive study conducted with middle school and high school age youth residing in northwestern Spain. The main outcome of the study is to advance knowledge about the drug use attitudes and behaviors of immigrants versus native youth in a social context where Latin American immigrants share a common language and a set of core cultural norms with the host society. The research was conducted by a bi-national Spain-US research team as a preliminary study leading to the development of joint culturally appropriate prevention interventions for youth in the northern region of Galicia, Spain. Surveys were administered in Spring 2005 to 817 students in 7th to 10th grades in 10 urban, secondary schools with high immigrant enrollment. The sample included Spanish natives (two-thirds) and Latin American immigrants (one-third), mainly from Colombia, Argentina, and Venezuela. Multiple regression analyses predicted substance use intentions, and a composite variable measuring lifetime and last 30-day frequency and amount of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use. Controlling for the fact that the immigrant students were generally older and performing less well academically than natives, and for other predictors, Latin American immigrant youth were less at risk than native youth on their intentions to use substances and on their reported actual substance use. In a mediational analysis, most of the key explanatory variables in youth substance use etiology failed to account for the immigrant versus native differences, including a range of risk and protective factors for substance use, substance use norms, strength of ethnic identity, and degree of social integration within native-born social networks. Differential access to drugs mediated the immigrant-native gap in substance use intentions but did not mediate differences in actual substance use.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 149-170 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Ethnicity and Health |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2008 |
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Keywords
- Ethnic identity
- Immigrants
- Substance use
- Youth
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Cultural Studies
Cite this
Immigrant advantage? Substance use among Latin American immigrant and native-born youth in Spain. / Marsiglia, Flavio; Kulis, Stephen; Luengo, Maria Ángeles; Nieri, Tanya; Villar, Paula.
In: Ethnicity and Health, Vol. 13, No. 2, 04.2008, p. 149-170.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Immigrant advantage? Substance use among Latin American immigrant and native-born youth in Spain
AU - Marsiglia, Flavio
AU - Kulis, Stephen
AU - Luengo, Maria Ángeles
AU - Nieri, Tanya
AU - Villar, Paula
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - This article reports the results of a descriptive study conducted with middle school and high school age youth residing in northwestern Spain. The main outcome of the study is to advance knowledge about the drug use attitudes and behaviors of immigrants versus native youth in a social context where Latin American immigrants share a common language and a set of core cultural norms with the host society. The research was conducted by a bi-national Spain-US research team as a preliminary study leading to the development of joint culturally appropriate prevention interventions for youth in the northern region of Galicia, Spain. Surveys were administered in Spring 2005 to 817 students in 7th to 10th grades in 10 urban, secondary schools with high immigrant enrollment. The sample included Spanish natives (two-thirds) and Latin American immigrants (one-third), mainly from Colombia, Argentina, and Venezuela. Multiple regression analyses predicted substance use intentions, and a composite variable measuring lifetime and last 30-day frequency and amount of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use. Controlling for the fact that the immigrant students were generally older and performing less well academically than natives, and for other predictors, Latin American immigrant youth were less at risk than native youth on their intentions to use substances and on their reported actual substance use. In a mediational analysis, most of the key explanatory variables in youth substance use etiology failed to account for the immigrant versus native differences, including a range of risk and protective factors for substance use, substance use norms, strength of ethnic identity, and degree of social integration within native-born social networks. Differential access to drugs mediated the immigrant-native gap in substance use intentions but did not mediate differences in actual substance use.
AB - This article reports the results of a descriptive study conducted with middle school and high school age youth residing in northwestern Spain. The main outcome of the study is to advance knowledge about the drug use attitudes and behaviors of immigrants versus native youth in a social context where Latin American immigrants share a common language and a set of core cultural norms with the host society. The research was conducted by a bi-national Spain-US research team as a preliminary study leading to the development of joint culturally appropriate prevention interventions for youth in the northern region of Galicia, Spain. Surveys were administered in Spring 2005 to 817 students in 7th to 10th grades in 10 urban, secondary schools with high immigrant enrollment. The sample included Spanish natives (two-thirds) and Latin American immigrants (one-third), mainly from Colombia, Argentina, and Venezuela. Multiple regression analyses predicted substance use intentions, and a composite variable measuring lifetime and last 30-day frequency and amount of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use. Controlling for the fact that the immigrant students were generally older and performing less well academically than natives, and for other predictors, Latin American immigrant youth were less at risk than native youth on their intentions to use substances and on their reported actual substance use. In a mediational analysis, most of the key explanatory variables in youth substance use etiology failed to account for the immigrant versus native differences, including a range of risk and protective factors for substance use, substance use norms, strength of ethnic identity, and degree of social integration within native-born social networks. Differential access to drugs mediated the immigrant-native gap in substance use intentions but did not mediate differences in actual substance use.
KW - Ethnic identity
KW - Immigrants
KW - Substance use
KW - Youth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=42449108236&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=42449108236&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13557850701830356
DO - 10.1080/13557850701830356
M3 - Article
C2 - 18425712
AN - SCOPUS:42449108236
VL - 13
SP - 149
EP - 170
JO - Ethnicity and Health
JF - Ethnicity and Health
SN - 1355-7858
IS - 2
ER -