Research & Resources

In this study, researchers used a large longitudinal sample of adolescents to evaluate the association and potential interactions between community- and individual-level factors and substance use from adolescence to young adulthood. Across three waves of data, multilevel modeling was used to evaluate the association between community affluence and disadvantage, individual household socioeconomic status (SES, measured as parental level of education and self-reported public assistance), self-reported childhood maltreatment, and self-reported 12-month alcohol and 12-month marijuana use occasions. The results demonstrated a significant positive association between community affluence and parental education with self-reported alcohol use, but not self-reported marijuana use. In post hoc analyses, higher community affluence was associated with higher alcohol use in older adolescents and lower use in younger adolescents, while the opposite association was found for neighborhood disadvantage. Consistent with past literature, there was a significant positive association between self-reported childhood maltreatment and self-reported 12-month alcohol and 12-month marijuana use. Weighted analyses revealed a significant negative association between community disadvantage and self-reported 12-month alcohol use. This study demonstrates a nuanced relationship between community- and individual-level factors and substance use during the transitional window of adolescence. This relationship should be considered when contextualizing and interpreting normative substance use during adolescence.

This paper, “Individual and community level developmental adversities: Associations with marijuana and alcohol use in late-adolescents and young adults,” was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and published in the Journal of youth and adolescence.