The Epidemiology of Substance Use Among America's Multiracial Youth: Implications for Social Workers Who Work with Vulnerable Populations

Background and Purpose: Many of the social problems that social workers attempt to address are correlated, caused or exacerbated by the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Further, substance use is the leading preventable cause of premature mortality in America. Although substance use is prevalent across the nation’s increasingly diverse population, its use is not distributed equally across racial/ethnic groups. One of the nation’s fastest growing populations is youth who identify with two or more racial/ethnic groups (i.e., “multi-racial” youth). Although young people of color have historically reported substance use rates that are comparable to, if not lower than, those of White youth, many of these differences have disappeared or even reversed, especially for multiracial youth. For example, in 2015, multi-racial youth, ages 12-17, reported the highest marijuana prevalence rates and between 2014 and 2015 they were the only racial/ethnic group whose marijuana use increased significantly. Unfortunately, because of small sample sizes, most past research has failed to disaggregate the “multi-racial” subgroup and thus relatively little is known about the substance use prevalences and patterns among specific subgroups of young people (e.g, Black-White, Asian-American Indian). The purpose of the current study is fourfold: first, to examine the epidemiology of substance use among America’s increasingly diverse youth population, with a particular focus on biracial youth; second, to examine the extent to which substance use differs among monoracial, biracial, and multiracial youth; third to test a series of hypotheses intended to understand these differences; and fourth to make recommendations for social workers who work with these vulnerable populations. Methods: Data: The data for this study come from the Monitoring the Future project. Monitoring the Future includes large nationally representative samples of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students. The total sample includes data from approximately 118,000 8^th graders, 125,000 10^th graders, and 114,000 12^th graders. Measures: The dependent variables include lifetime, annual, and past month tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Race is measured by the item “How do you describe yourself?” and respondents were permitted to select multiple responses. The analytic sample includes white, black, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander, 13 biracial subgroups (e.g., black-white, Asian American-Native American), and multiracial (i.e., those identifying with more than 2 racial/ethnic groups) adolescents. Statistical Analyses: Analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4. Results: We found significant racial/ethnic differences in adolescent substance use with biracial youth generally being more likely to use substances than their monoracial counterparts. Conclusions and Implications: Social workers who work with young people should be aware that biracial youth may be particularly vulnerable to substance use and its consequences. Accordingly, future research should further examine the correlates, causes and consequences of substance use among biracial and other racial/ethnic minority youth and design and tailor interventions that address the unique challenges that they face as our nation becomes increasingly racially and ethnicity diverse.