Up in Smoke: Neighborhood Contexts of Marijuana Use from Adolescence Through Young Adulthood

Tara D. Warner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current understanding of the neighborhood contexts wherein adolescent substance use emerges remains limited by conflicting findings regarding geographic variation in, and neighborhood effects on, both the prevalence of and risk factors for such use. Using four waves of longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health [n = 18,697 (51 % female, 54 % White, 24 % Black, 16 % Hispanic, 7 % Asian, 2 % American Indian/Other)], latent class analysis, and growth curve modeling, this study identified distinct neighborhood types—patterned by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and geography—and explored how trajectories of adolescent and young adult marijuana use differed across neighborhood types. The results demonstrated complexity in neighborhood contexts, illustrating variation in trajectories of marijuana use across neighborhood types heretofore unobserved in neighborhoods research, and largely unexplained by key individual, family, and peer risk and protective factors. This approach highlights how social structural forces intersect and anchor trajectories of youth substance-using risk behavior.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)35-53
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume45
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016

Keywords

  • Adolescence
  • Marijuana
  • Neighborhood typology
  • Substance use
  • Urban/rural

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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