This article reports the results of research exploring how ethnicity and ethnic identity may “protect” adolescents against drug use and help them form antidrug use norms. This study was conducted i...

This study used baseline data from the Southwest sample of the Latino Acculturation and Health Project to examine whether familism and cohesion are related to problem behaviors in a sample of Mexican and Mexican-American adolescents in the Southwest United States. This study is important to practitioners and prevention and intervention researchers because it examines buffers to problem behaviors among an increasingly at-risk population. The results confirm that familism is a powerful protective factor against aggressive behavior, conduct problems, and rule-breaking in this sample. The results draw attention to the importance of family among Mexican and Mexican-American families. Family cohesion, however, was found to be protective against conduct problems and rule-breaking but not aggressive behavior. Possible explanations for this result are discussed. Additional findings suggest that adolescents who have the ability to navigate between culture of origin and mainstream culture are also protected against some problem behaviors.

Among a predominantly Mexican and Mexican American sample of preadolescents, religiosity protected against lifetime alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use and recent alcohol and cigarette use when religious affiliation was controlled. When religiosity was controlled, however, adolescents with no religious affiliation and adolescents who were religiously affiliated reported similar substance use outcomes. Interaction effects demonstrated that the protective effect of greater religiosity operated more strongly in some religions than in others for selected outcomes. Overall, the impact of religiosity on reported drug use did not differ significantly for more and less acculturated Latino youth.

This study examines how cohesion and parent–child conflict relate to alcohol use among Mexican-heritage adolescents. The sample consists of 120 adolescents (14 to 18 years) participants from the Southwest sub-sample of the Latino Acculturation and Health Project. Lifetime and recent alcohol use and binge drinking were tested. Results from the logistic regressions identified high and low levels of family cohesion as a risk factor for alcohol use compared to medium levels of cohesion, and parent–child conflict predicted lifetime use and binge drinking. Low and high family cohesion levels appear to be especially problematic among Mexican adolescents who are trying to navigate two different cultural worlds. Although high family cohesion is often a characteristic of Mexican families, Mexican-heritage adolescents may view high family cohesion as a hindrance to their own independence. Unresolved conflict seems to be connected to children's problem behaviors and alcohol misuse could be utilized by adolescents as a mechanism to reduce emotional distress caused by family tensions.

This study examined whether language preference, as an indicator of acculturation, moderated the effects of a culturally grounded substance use prevention intervention for Mexican and Mexican Ameri...