School-level contextual influences on smoking and drinking among Asian and Pacific Islander adolescents

Abstract

In this study, we seek to identify school contextual predictors of tobacco and alcohol use patterns (smoking only, drinking only, and both) among Asian and Pacific Islander (API) adolescents in California public schools and ethnic variation in determinants of substance use. The data included a sample of 26,692 Asian and 3518 Pacific Islander (PI) adolescents from the 2000–2001 California Healthy Kids Survey. School-level information ( n = 836 schools) was from the California Basic Educational Data System and the 2000 census. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the association of school contexts with substance use patterns, controlling for individual-level factors. Pacific Islanders showed much higher prevalence of smoking and drinking than Asians, and the prevalence varied by school. School contexts were independently associated with API adolescents’ substance use beyond the individual-level characteristics. The associations between school factors and outcomes also varied by ethnic group. Latino majority schools and schools with a high Asian immigrant concentration in the surrounding neighborhood had a lower risk of substance use among Asians but only to a modest degree among PIs. This study confirmed the importance of distinguishing Asians and PIs and the need for more attention to school contextual factors in adolescent substance use research.