Abstract
BackgroundThis study examined associations between perceived neighborhood illicit drug selling, peer illicit drug disapproval and illicit drug use among a large nationally representative sample of U.S. high school seniors.MethodsData come from Monitoring the Future (2007–2011), an annual cross-sectional survey of U.S. high school seniors. Students reported neighborhood illicit drug selling, friend drug disapproval towards marijuana and cocaine use, and past 12-month and past 30-day illicit drug use (N = 10,050). Multinomial logistic regression models were fit to explain use of 1) just marijuana, 2) one illicit drug other than marijuana, and 3) more than one illicit drug other than marijuana, compared to “no use”.ResultsReport of neighborhood illicit drug selling was associated with lower friend disapproval of marijuana and cocaine; e.g., those who reported seeing neighborhood sales “almost every day” were less likely to report their friends strongly disapproved of marijuana (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.49) compared to those who reported never seeing neighborhood drug selling and reported no disapproval. Perception of neighborhood illicit drug selling was also associated with past-year drug use and past-month drug use; e.g., those who reported seeing neighborhood sales “almost every day” were more likely to report 30-day use of more than one illicit drug (AOR = 11.11, 95% CI: 7.47, 16.52) compared to those who reported never seeing neighborhood drug selling and reported no 30-day use of illicit drugs.ConclusionsPerceived neighborhood drug selling was associated with lower peer disapproval and more illicit drug use among a population-based nationally representative sample of U.S. high school seniors. Policy interventions to reduce “open” (visible) neighborhood drug selling (e.g., problem-oriented policing and modifications to the physical environment such as installing and monitoring surveillance cameras) may reduce illicit drug use and peer disapproval of illicit drugs.
Highlights
This study examined associations between perceived neighborhood illicit drug selling, peer illicit drug disapproval and illicit drug use among a large nationally representative sample of U.S high school seniors
The primary aim of this study is to examine the association of perceived neighborhood illicit drug selling and illicit drug use among a large population-based nationally representative sample of U.S high school seniors
Because peers can influence illicit drug use among adolescents [38,39], we evaluated the association of perceived neighborhood illicit drug selling and peer illicit drug disapproval among the sample
Summary
This study examined associations between perceived neighborhood illicit drug selling, peer illicit drug disapproval and illicit drug use among a large nationally representative sample of U.S high school seniors. Previous studies have examined associations between neighborhood socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., neighborhood poverty) and illicit drug use [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Prior research shows that exposure to neighborhood violence and crime is associated with illicit drug use [15,16,17]. Using and analyzing aggregate measures of neighborhood social disorder (including neighborhood drug selling as a component), some other studies have found a relationship between neighborhood social disorder and illicit drug use behaviors [16,18,19,20]. A recent study by Epstein and colleagues (2014) showed that neighborhood-level drug activity and social disorder were associated with heroin and cocaine craving among drug misusers [21]
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