Race and Ethnic Differences in Adolescent Drug Use: The Impact of Family Structure and the Quantity and Quality of Parental Interaction

Curbing adolescent substance abuse is a national priority in the United States. To effectively allocate resources it is imperative that antecedents and correlates of drug use across diverse populations be understood. Racial and ethnic differences in drug use have yet to be explained. Because family characteristics are known to vary across race/ethnic groups, and prior research suggests a connection between family characteristics and adolescent drug use, this study investigates the impact of family on race/ethnic differences in drug use. Using data from a national household survey, we found that although socioeconomic and demographic characteristics alone explained drug use differences between Latinos and non-Latino whites, the differences between Black and white adolescents could not be explained by either structural or functional differences in the family. Furthermore, it appears that the single-parent Black family provides a greater protection against drug use than does the two-biological-parent Black family. Our findings suggest that the development of policy based on a knowledge of correlates of substance use within the white community may be both inefficient and ineffective when applied to minority communities.