The influence of ethnic identity on drug use among ethnic minority adolescents

Ethnic identity is a significant factor related to self-concept and psychol ogical development and similar to other aspects of identity, is of particul ar importance during the adolescent years when there is increased vulnerabi lity to drug involvement. However, much of the research relative to adolesc ent drug use has focused on the annual and current prevalence rates among p articular ethnic groups with little attention to ethnic or group identity i ssues. However, it is important to study and compare ethnic and group ident ity and its correlates to drug use. This article presents face-to-face inte rview questionnaire measures of ethnic identity as measured by affirmation and belongingness, ethnic identity achievement, ethnic behavior, and other group orientation [I], and drug use as measured by misuse, abuse, and chemi cal dependency diagnoses [2]. The questionnaires were administered to 127 ( 60 Ethnic, 67 White) adolescents from ethnically diverse schools in a large urban school district in the Pacific Northwest. The relationship of ethnic identity to drug use was examined. This study indicates that the questionn aire measures can be used to examine similarities and differences in ethnic identity and drug use among adolescents from different ethnic groups. A ke y finding of this study was that white adolescents scored lower in ethnic i dentity than did members of the four ethnic minority groups and the mixed r acial group. However, the most significant key finding was that in the ethn ic minority sample high levels of cultural identity were associated with he avy drug use. The results of this study suggest that social influences may play a larger role in the development of heavy drug use irrespective of the nature and origins of these social influences. (C) 2000, Baywood Publishin g Co., Inc.