Assessing Pathways to Substance Use and Delinquency Among Urban African American Adolescents: Future Orientation, Parental Monitoring and Peer Norms

Background: African American youth in low-income communities relative to their other ethnic counterparts bear a higher burden of juvenile justice involvement. Such involvement is partly due to greater surveillance and more negative sanctions related substance use and delinquency relative to their other ethnic counterparts. Therefore understanding and disrupting the pathways associated with these behavioral risks represents an urgent priority. This study examined parental monitoring, peer norms, and future orientation as primary pathways to drug use and delinquent behaviors in a sample of African American urban adolescents. Although research suggests that these constructs are influential determinants of delinquency and substance use, extant research is yet to investigate these constructs simultaneously in a single statistical model.

Methods: A sample of 683 African American youth primarily residing in low income communities were mostly recruited from high schools, after school settings and other venues frequented by youth. Covariates included age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and lifetime exposure to community violence. In addition, primary measures were assessed for risky peer norms (Chronbach α = .90), future orientation (Chronbach α =.74), parental monitoring  (Chronbach α =.87), and youth substance use and delinquency.

Using Mplus, a path model tested direct paths from peer norms, parental monitoring, and future orientation to drug use and delinquency outcome measures after adjusting for potential confounders (gender, age, socioeconomic status, exposure to community violence and sexual orientation). For each of the direct pathways unstandardized and standardized coefficients were computed.

Results: The mean for risky peer norms, future orientation and parental monitoring were 12.98 (SD, 9.95), 2.44(SDD, .35), and 38.58(SD, 8.81) respectively. Major results from path analyses, indicated that risky peer norms when assessed with parental monitoring and future orientation exerted the greatest effects on substance use and delinquency. Greater scores on measures of risky peer norms were associated with heightened risk of delinquency (B=.04 CI=.03, .05, p<.001; β=.38) with a standardized effect size approximately twice in magnitude compared to the protective effects of future orientation (B=-.65 CI=-.91, -.38, p<.001; β=-.20). No statistically significant relationship was documented between parental monitoring and delinquency.  Regarding substance use, greater perceived risky peer norms predicted an increased likelihood of substance use (B=.04 CI=.03 .06, p<.001; β=.40) with a standardized effect size 3.33 times in magnitude compared to the protective effects of parental monitoring (B= -.02, CI=-.03, .003, p<.05; β=-.12). No significant relationship was found between future orientation and substance use (B=-.06 CI=-.34, -.24, p<.001; β=.004).

Implications: In low-resourced communities dominated by single female-headed households increasing parental monitoring might be a challenge. However, these findings provide valuable insights for practitioners into important avenues of intervention. Addressing the influence of peer norms could attenuate both substance use and delinquency. In addition, interventions to enhance future orientation are promising avenues through which practitioners might curtail delinquent behaviors among adolescents.