"Instead of Digging Down...I'm Getting a Chance": A Qualitative Study on Substance Use Among Black and Latine Young Adults during Reentry after Incarceration

Background and Purpose: Young adults, ages 18 to 25, who are transitioning back to their communities after a period of incarceration often face challenges surrounding behavioral health needs, including substance use. Given that reentry presents opportunities to bolster individual, interpersonal, and societal support for young adults, it is crucial to understand how they navigate substance use experiences. However, the current literature focused on substance use during reentry has largely overlooked the experiences of young adults, including ethnoracial minoritized young adults. The present study aimed to explore both individual-level processes along with broader level processes appearing in the data around the substance use experiences of ethnoracial minoritized young adults in reentry.

Methods: A secondary qualitative data analysis (SQDA) was conducted on longitudinal interview data collected as part of a larger mixed methods study on young adult experiences during reentry. This SQDA study used grounded theory techniques to explore and analyze the experiences of young adults in reentry with respect to substance use behaviors. A total of 65 longitudinal interviews collected over a nine-month period from the 16 unique participants were coded and analyzed, with participants completing an average of four interviews.

Findings: Most of the sample was male, either Black or Latine, and completed more than one interview across the study period. Of the 16 participants, nine (56%) young adults discussed current substance use or a history of substance use during their interviews. Five primary themes emerged around three levels – individual, interpersonal/network, and societal. The five themes included: 1) recognizing reasons and consequences of past substance use, 2) evolving perception of substance use, 3) setting boundaries to maintain substance use behavior change, 4) leveraging family to support substance use behavior change, and 5) setting goals to improve conditions related to social determinants of health that impact substance use behaviors.

Conclusions and Implications: This study underscores the need for transformative reentry supports for ethnoracial minoritized young adults. Findings suggest the need to support young adults in processes such as recognizing the impact of their past substance use, figuring out their own harm reduction approaches to help with substance use behavior change, disseminating substance use prevention education and psychoeducation to young adults during incarceration and reentry and family and caregiver support when indicated, and improving social determinants of health impacting Black and Latine young adults during reentry, including education, housing, and economic opportunities.