Ecodevelopmental influences on latent classes of substance use among urban American Indian adolescents

The large majority (over 70%) of American Indian adolescents who reside in cities rather than tribal lands or rural areas report relatively earlier onset of substance use and more harmful associated health effects, compared to their non-Native peers. Objective: This study investigated multilevel ecodevelopmental influences on empirically derived patterns of substance use among urban American Indian adolescents. Method: Data came from 8th, 10th, and 12th grade American Indian adolescents (n = 2,407) in metropolitan areas of Arizona. Using latent class analysis, their recent use of various substances fell into four patterns: polysubstance users consuming alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, other illicit drugs, and misusing prescription or OTC drugs; users of only alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana; those using only substances other than alcohol; and nonusers. Measures of positive and negative family, peer, school and neighborhood influences were used to predict latent class assignment, employing the R3STEP command in Mplus, while controlling for student gender, age, grade level, and multiracial identity, as well as family type, parental education, and household size. Results: In bivariate tests, each of the positive influences predicted being drug free rather than engaging in one of three distinctive types of substance use, while negative influences predicted recent use of some substances and, among users, polysubstance use rather than the other two patterns of substance use. In multivariate tests of all the ecodevelopmental influences, the negative influences—in the family and among peers especially—were the strongest and most consistent predictors of substance use and of polysubstance use in particular.