Contextual effects of acculturation on perinatal substance exposure among immigrant and native-born Latinas

Objective. The objective of this paper is to determine whether community SE S and community acculturation have an effect on substance exposure rates am ong pregnant Latinas. Methods. The hypotheses in this paper are tested with logistic regression analyses based on a file which merges individual-level data from the 1992 Perinatal Substance Exposure Study in California with 1 990 census data. Results. Our findings indicate that community SES did not have a linear effect on substance prevalence rates for Latinas, except for a category of overall drug exposure. Higher levels of community acculturati on had a direct relationship with prevalence rates for tobacco, marijuana, amphetamines, and any drug. Community acculturation also had a direct relat ionship with alcohol prevalence for English speakers, but an inverse relati onship with Spanish speakers. Conclusions. Our results suggest that communi ty acculturation is an important component of substance use studies of Lati nas, above and beyond individual-level measures of acculturation.