The neighborhood effects of disrupted family processes on adolescent substance use

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.04.025Get rights and content

Abstract

In the current paper, we argue that the neighborhood-level of disrupted family processes (weak social ties to parents and coercive family interaction) should have a contextual effect on adolescent substance use (cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, and lifetime cannabis use), because adolescents living in neighborhoods in which disrupted family processes are prevalent should be more likely to associate with deviant (substance using) peers. We use nested data on 5491 Icelandic adolescents aged 15 and 16 years in 83 neighborhoods to examine the neighborhood-contextual effects of disrupted family processes on adolescent substance use (cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, and lifetime cannabis use), that is, whether neighborhoods in which disrupted family processes are common have more adolescent substance use, even after partialling out the individual-level effects of disrupted family processes on substance use. As predicted, we find that the neighborhood-levels of disrupted family processes have significant, contextual effects on all the indicators of substance use, and that association with substance using peers mediates a part of these contextual effects. The findings illustrate the limitation of an individual-level approach to adolescent substance use.

Section snippets

The current study

The Icelandic research setting is uniquely well-suited to examine the effect of neighborhood context on adolescent outcomes (Bernburg and Thorlindsson, 2007, Bernburg et al., 2009a, Bernburg et al., 2009b). We define neighborhood boundaries by using public schools. In Iceland public school attendance and neighborhood residence are tightly coupled during childhood and adolescence. The great majority (about 85 percent) of children and adolescents (up to age 16) attend small, neighborhood-based,

Data and measurement

The current analysis used two data sources. First, we used a national population survey of Icelandic adolescents to obtain individual-level measures as well as neighborhood-level measures of disrupted family processes. The initial sample consisted of all students born in 1990 and 1991 (15 and 16 years old), attending the compulsory ninth and tenth grade of the secondary school. Anonymous questionnaires were administered to all students present in class on 1 day in March 2006. Questionnaires

Statistical analysis

Hierarchical regression is the appropriate method for nested, multilevel data (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992). We use HLM 5 to conduct the analysis (Raudenbush, Bryk, & Cheong, 2001). Following Guo and Zhao (2000), we use logistic (Bernoulli) hierarchical regression for dichotomous dependent variables, that is, cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, and cannabis use (method of estimation: restricted PQL). Linear hierarchical regression is used for continuous dependent variables (peer substance use,

Results

Focusing on a neighborhood-level explanation of substance use and association with deviant peers rests on the assumption that these constructs exhibit some between-neighborhood variation in the current setting. We estimated intercept-only models to produce significant tests for the between-neighborhood variances in these variables. We followed Guo and Zhao (2000) and estimated the intraclass correlations from intercept-only multilevel binary models by ρ = σu2/(σu2 + σe2), where σe2 = π2/3 (the

Discussion

Our study is among the first to show that disrupted family processes influence not only the risk of substance use among adolescents that experience disruption personally; disrupted family processes increase the risk of substance use among other adolescents in the neighborhood as well. Thus, our findings show that the neighborhood-level of disrupted family processes has a contextual effect on all three indicators of substance use, net of the individual-level effects of disrupted family processes

Conclusion

The current paper has combined insights from three major strands of research on adolescent development, namely, research on disrupted family processes, peer influence, and neighborhood effects. As we have discussed above, our findings have implications for each of these research strands. Our multilevel approach indicates that just as it is impossible to gain sufficient understanding of adolescent substance use by focusing on individual-level risk factors, successful prevention has to take the

References (55)

  • A. Skutle et al.

    A community-based prevention program in western Norway organization and progression model

    Addictive Behaviors

    (2002)
  • R. Agnew

    Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency

    Criminology

    (1992)
  • R. Agnew et al.

    An empirical test of general strain theory

    Criminology

    (1992)
  • R.L. Akers

    Deviant behavior: A social learning approach

    (1985)
  • M.W. Arthur et al.

    Mobilizing communities to reduce the risk of drug abuse: a comparison of two strategies

  • R.H. Aseltine et al.

    Life stress, anger and anxiety, and delinquency: an empirical test of general strain theory

    Journal of Health and Social Behavior

    (2000)
  • M. Barrera et al.

    The relation of family support to adolescentś psychological distress and behavior problems

  • P.E. Belliar

    Social interaction and community crime: examining the importance of neighbor networks

    Criminology

    (1997)
  • J.G. Bernburg et al.

    Community structure and adolescent delinquency in Iceland: a contextual analysis

    Criminology

    (2007)
  • Bernburg, J.G., Thorlindsson, T., & Sigfusdottir, I.D. (2009a). Economic deprivation, community context, and adolescent...
  • Bernburg J.G., Thorlindsson, T., & Sigfusdottir, L.D. (2009b). The spreading of suicidal behavior: the contextual...
  • J.M. Beyers et al.

    Neighborhood structure, parenting processes, and the development of youths' externalizing behaviors: a multilevel analysis

    American Journal of Community Psychology

    (2003)
  • N.K. Bowen et al.

    Neighborhood social disorganization, families, and the educational behavior of adolescents

    Journal of Adolescent Research

    (2002)
  • G.H. Brody et al.

    The influence of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting on African American children's affiliation with deviant peers

    Child Development

    (2001)
  • R.J. Bursik

    Social disorganization and theories of crime and delinquency: problems and prospects

    Criminology

    (1988)
  • Bryk, A. S., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Application and data analysis methods. Newbury...
  • S. Caswell

    A decade of community action research

    Substance Use and Misuse

    (2000)
  • A.M. Cattarello

    Community-level influences on individuals' social bonds, peer associations, and delinquency: a multilevel analysis

    Justice Quarterly

    (2000)
  • Y.C. Chuang et al.

    Neighborhood influences on adolescent cigarette and alcohol use: mediating effects through parent and peer behaviors

    Journal of Health and Social Behavior

    (2005)
  • J.S. Coleman

    Social capital in the creation of human capital

    American Journal of Sociology

    (1988)
  • R.D. Conger et al.

    Economic stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents

    Child Development

    (1994)
  • G. Duncan et al.

    Assessing the effects of context in studies of child and youth development

    Educational Pscychologist

    (1999)
  • D.S. Elliott et al.

    The effects of neighborhood disadvantage on adolescent development

    Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

    (1996)
  • R. Frank et al.

    Barrios and burbs: residential context and health-risk behaviors among Angeleno adolescents

    Journal of Health & Social Behavior

    (2007)
  • G. Guo et al.

    Multilevel modeling for binary data

    Annual Review of Sociology

    (2000)
  • D.L. Haynie

    Delinquent peers revisited: does network structure matter?

    American Journal of Sociology

    (2001)
  • D.L. Haynie

    Friendship networks and delinquency: the relative nature of peer delinquency

    Journal of Quantitative Criminology

    (2002)
  • Cited by (29)

    • Residential environments, alcohol advertising, and initiation and continuation of alcohol consumption among adolescents in urban Taiwan: A prospective multilevel study

      2016, SSM - Population Health
      Citation Excerpt :

      Recent systematic reviews revealed that findings about associations between place-based economic disadvantage and underage drinking are mixed (Bryden et al., 2012; Jackson et al., 2014; Karriker-Jaffe, 2011). Some cross-sectional studies found that economic disadvantage was associated with higher levels of underage drinking (Bernburg, Thorlindsson, & Sigfusdottir, 2009; De Haan, Boljevac, & Schaefer, 2010; Huckle, Huakau, Sweetsur, Huisman, & Casswell, 2008), while others indicated that local affluence was positively associated with this outcome (Lo, Anderson, Minugh, & Lomuto, 2006; Reboussin, Preisser, Song, & Wolfson, 2010; Snedker, Herting, & Walton, 2009). Still other studies have found no association between economic disadvantage and underage drinking (Brenner, Bauermeister, & Zimmerman, 2011; Fagan, Wright, & Pinchevsky, 2013; Kulis, Marsiglia, Sicotte, & Nieri, 2007).

    • Neighborhood income inequality, social capital and emotional distress among adolescents: A population-based study

      2016, Journal of Adolescence
      Citation Excerpt :

      Neighborhoods in Iceland can be defined by the hub of homes assigned to public municipal schools, which correspond in a more meaningful way to the community context relevant for adolescent emotional well-being than the arbitrary geographical boundaries often used in community research (see Bursik, 1988). A vast majority of elementary school students in Iceland attend the municipally operated schools and school attendance is near to perfectly correlated with neighborhood residence (Bernburg, Thorlindsson, & Sigfusdottir, 2009b, 2009c). This country-wide quality of schools and neighborhoods makes it possible to use school level data to assess the contextual qualities of the neighborhood community.

    • Neighbourhood crime and adolescent cannabis use in Canadian adolescents

      2015, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
      Citation Excerpt :

      Social disorganization theory (Shaw and McKay, 1942) suggests that neighbourhood disadvantage may increase cannabis use through adolescents’ exposure to deviant individuals and greater access to cannabis (Ter Bogt et al., 2006, 2013), environmentally induced stress, and less social control and monitoring (Sampson et al., 2002). Consistent with this theory, studies have found a relation between adolescent cannabis use and neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation, residential instability, and racial and ethnic diversity (Bernburg et al., 2009; Brooks-Gunn et al., 1993; Fite et al., 2009; Furr-Holden et al., 2011; Jang and Johnson, 2001; Lambert et al., 2004; Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Mason and Mennis, 2010; Tucker et al., 2013). In addition, they have shown that perceived (disapproving) social norms relate to lower rates of adolescent cannabis use (Keyes et al., 2011).

    • Social and socio-demographic neighborhood effects on adolescent alcohol use: A systematic review of multi-level studies

      2014, Social Science and Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      Two studies tested mediating variables in their models. Bernburg et al. (2009) found that community-level disrupted family processes may mediate the effect of disadvantage, whereas Brenner et al. (2011) found that disadvantage had no indirect effects on alcohol use. Five studies examined neighborhood disorder by assessing objective rates of neighborhood crime or participants' self-report of the neighborhood attributes such as criminal activities, fighting, and abandoned buildings (Fagan et al., 2007; Kulis et al., 2007; Snedker and Herting, 2008; Steen, 2010; Yabiku et al., 2007).

    • Recent cannabis use among adolescent and young adult immigrants in the Netherlands - The roles of acculturation strategy and linguistic acculturation

      2014, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
      Citation Excerpt :

      This increases the likelihood of exposure to peer substance use and to peer influences promoting substance use. Indeed, Thai et al. (2010) demonstrated in a sample of Asian immigrants living in the US that acculturation to a culture with positive values regarding substance use affects the likelihood to affiliate with substance-using peers, which is strongly associated with adolescent substance use, including cannabis (Bernburg et al., 2009; Creemers et al., 2010; Oetting and Beauvais, 1987; Pinchevsky et al., 2012). It is yet unclear if this finding can be generalized to other immigrant groups.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text