Abstract
Fifty percent of adolescents have tried an illicit drug and 70% have tried alcohol by the end of high school, with even higher rates among multiracial youth. Ethnic identity is a protective factor against substance use for minority groups. However, little is known about the mechanisms that facilitate its protective effects, and even less is known about this relationship for multiracial youth. The purpose of the present study was to examine the protective effect of ethnic identity on substance use and to determine whether this relationship operated indirectly through self-esteem, a strong predictor of substance use for among adolescent populations. Participants included 468 multiracial youth in grades six through 12 (53% female). The results found that ethnic identity was indeed related to substance use, partially through changes in self-esteem. Findings from this study contribute to our understanding and development of models of risk and protection for an understudied population.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2017
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.03.003
Funding Information
This research was supported by NIH award DA05312 to Sycarah Fisher and NIH award KL2TR001106 to Tamika Zapolski.
Repository Citation
Fisher, Sycarah; Zapolski, Tamika C. B.; Sheehan, Chelsea; and Barnes-Najor, Jessica, "Pathway of Protection: Ethnic Identity, Self-Esteem, and Substance Use Among Multiracial Youth" (2017). Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications. 26.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_facpub/26
Included in
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons, Substance Abuse and Addiction Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Addictive Behaviors, v. 72, p. 27-32.
© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
The document available for download is the author's post-peer-review final draft of the article.