Associations between family structure, family functioning, and substance use among Hispanic/Latino adolescents.

Understanding the mechanisms behind Hispanic/Latino adolescent substance use in the United States is a growing area of emphasis for substance use prevention researchers (Prado et al., 2008). Data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health indicate that in 2006, 40% of Hispanic/Latino adolescents aged 12–17 years reported lifetime use of alcohol, while almost 24% reported lifetime use of cigarettes, and 17% reported lifetime use of marijuana (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2006). Given that Hispanic/Latino adolescents are part of the most rapidly growing ethnic minority group in the United States (Bernstein, 2005), research into the factors affecting substance use in this group is particularly important. Ecodevelopmental Theory (Szapocznik & Coatsworth, 1999) examines the complex set of reciprocal influences on problem behaviors among adolescents, and can be used as a framework to inform an investigation of the factors associated with adolescent substance use. Ecodevelopmental Theory and other ecological theories of behavior (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1979) focus on three primary worlds of the adolescent (i.e., family, peers, and school) and identify four levels of influence: 1) macrosystems, or the cultural or societal ideals that define a society or culture, 2) exosystems, or the conditions in a parent’s life that indirect affect adolescents (e.g., work stress, social support), 3) mesosystems, or the linkages between the adolescents’ worlds (e.g., parental involvement in school), and 4) microsystems, or the immediate social contexts that directly influence adolescents (e.g., family, school, and peers; Pantin et al., 2003). These contexts also can interact with one another. For example, a supportive family or school environment can buffer the harmful effects of neighborhood disorganization, poverty, and violence on adolescent delinquency (Cicchetti & Aber, 1998). According to Pantin and colleagues (2003), the family context has the greatest degree of influence over the adolescent, and aspects of family functioning such as family conflict, cohesion, and communication are among the most powerful predictors of developmental outcomes. Considering the central role of the family in Hispanic/Latino cultures (Miranda et al., 2006), family characteristics may be especially important influences on substance use among Hispanic/Latino adolescents. Many Hispanic/Latino families in the United States also have unique characteristics that may influence parenting quality and effectiveness, including high residential mobility, family members immigrating to the United States at different times, and the challenges of parenting in an unfamiliar social and cultural environment and with limited social and economic resources. For the current report, we focus primarily on two aspects of the family context – parental family structure and characteristics of family functioning – in an investigation of substance use behavior among Hispanic/Latino adolescents. Family functioning (i.e., parental monitoring, communication, family cohesion, family conflict) represents one aspect of the microsytem of the family. Parental family structure may itself be a product of exosystem factors, which indirectly affect adolescents via more proximal or mediating influences. These factors are all contextualized within the larger macrosystem of cultural values and changes in cultural norms represented, in part, by the process of acculturation.