Research on Asian American substance use has, to date, been limited by monolithic conceptions of Asian identity, inadequate attention to acculturative processes, and a dearth of longitudinal analyses spanning multiple developmental periods. Using five waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study addresses these limitations by longitudinally investigating disparities in substance use from early adolescence into mature adulthood among Asian American ethnic groups, including subjects identifying as multiple Asian ethnicities and multiracial Asians. The conditional effects of acculturation indicators (e.g. nativity generation, co-ethnic peer networks, co-ethnic neighbourhood concentration) on the substance use outcomes were also examined. Results indicate significant variation across Asian ethnicities, with the lowest probabilities of substance use among Chinese and Vietnamese Americans, and the highest among multiracial Asian Americans. Acculturation indicators were also strongly, independently associated with increased substance use, and attenuated many of the observed ethnic disparities, particularly for multiracial, multiethnic, and Japanese Asian Americans. This study argues that ignoring the diversity of Asian ethnicities masks the presence of high-risk Asian American groups. Further, results indicate that, among contemporary Asian Americans, substance use is strongly positively associated with acculturation to U.S. cultural norms, and generally peaks at later ages than the U.S. average.

Early life psychosocial adversities and developmental disorders are common among children in the United States. However, there is relatively little research on how family processes and neighborhood-level factors may promote well-being among children dually burdened with developmental disorders (DD) and adverse childhood experience (ACE). Using secondary analysis of the National Survey of Children’s Health 2016–2018 (N = 56,831), we examined the associations of family resilience and other protective factors with flourishing and school engagement among subgroups of children with dual exposure to DD and ACE. Results indicate that family resilience, family meals, and mother’s mental health promote flourishing and school engagement amid varying levels of exposure to ACE and DD. Social interventions designed to improve family and neighborhood resources can protect child well-being amid multiple adversities.

Purpose: We examined the associations between major and everyday discrimination and self-rated health among a national sample of ten Asian ethnic subgroups, including Vietnamese, Chinese, Hmong, Cambo-dians, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans. Methods: We used data from the 2016 National Asian American Survey ( n = 4427). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore the associations between major and everyday discrimination and self-rated health among ten Asian ethnic subgroups, controlling for relevant sociodemographic factors. Results: Findings showed that major discrimination was associated with higher odds of poorer self-rated health among Asians as a group. Subgroup analyses revealed that encounters with major discrimination were associated with poorer self-rated health among Vietnamese, Filipinos, Cambodians, and Hmong. Everyday discrimination was associated with poorer self-rated health only among Hmong. Conclusion: Overall, the negative health consequences of everyday and major discrimination vary by Asian ethnic subgroup. Targeting certain forms of discrimination facing specific Asian ethnic groups is needed to reduce their risk of adverse health outcomes. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

It is well established that immigrant adolescents have lower smoking rates than their native-born counterparts. Although smoking rates among immigrants have been theorized to increase with U.S. acculturation, this hypothesis has seldom been tested using longitudinal data spanning multiple developmental stages. The authors address this limitation using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to model age-based smoking trajectories by gender and nativity status among Asian Americans (ages 10–33 years), adjusting for a range of control covariates. Trajectory analyses indicate that the gap between immigrants and natives generally increases as individuals age, but this process varies by gender, with immigrant women exhibiting a significantly less steep smoking growth trajectory ( b = −.011, p < .001) compared with native-born men (and all other nativity-gender combinations), whereas immigrant men show no significant smoking trajectory slope difference compared with native men. In summary, results suggest a gendered acculturation process for smoking behavior among Asian Americans.