DRUG USE AMONG PUERTO RICAN YOUTH: AN EXPLORATION OF GENERATIONAL STATUS DIFFERENCES

• Main Author: VELEZ-SANTORI, CARMEN NOEMI
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1981
• Subjects: Social research
• ISBN: 9798204670327

The aims of this study were manifold: first, it explored whether the generational status of Puerto Rican adolescents was related to various interpersonal and intrapersonal factors that have been documented in the literature as theoretically relevant to adolescent drug use. Second, it explored whether the drug use involvement of four generational status subgroups of Puerto Rican adolescent parallel the length of exposure of the groups to a host society (i.e., New York City) different from the parental culture of origin (i.e., Puerto Rico). Third, it also analyzed whether the adolescent drug use involvement of Puerto Rican Migrants to New York City increased with increases in exposure to the host society (i.e., with increases in the length of time spent living in New York City). Finally, it also explored the relationship between sociodemographic, interpersonal and intrapersonal factors and drug use involvement for the four generational status subgroups of Puerto Rican adolescents. Special emphasis was given to uncover whether the relationship between the various sociodemographic and sociopsychological factors and drug use involvement varied with the generational status of the Puerto Rican student. The population studied in this research consisted of Puerto Rican students attending two New York City public high schools and two public high schools in Puerto Rico during the Fall of 1974. In order to study the relationship between generational status and drug use behavior, four subgroups of Puerto Rican adolescents were selected for analysis. The two generational status subgroups selected from the two schools surveyed in New York City were the New York Rican group (i.e., New York-born adolescents of Puerto Rican parentage) and the N.Y. Migrants (i.e., Puerto Rican-born adolescents of Puerto Rican parentage). The two groups selected for analysis from the two schools surveyed in Puerto Rico were: The P.R. Immigrants (i.e., New York-born adolescents who have lived in New York for two years or more) and the P.R. Islanders (i.e., Puerto Rican-born adolescents of Puerto Rican parentage who have never lived out of Puerto Rico). The generational status of the Puerto Rican students was conceived as an index of the length of exposure of the students to a host society different from that of the parental culture of origin, the four groups, therefore, represented varying degrees of exposure to the host society. The relationship between the various sociopsychological factors considered to be relevant to drug use and the students' generational status was analyzed through a one-way analysis of variance. It was found as expected, that all of the sociopsychological factors studied were consistently related to the students' generational status. The relationship between the students' generational status and drug use involvement was explored using a multiple correlation/regression analysis. Also as expected, it was found that the students' drug use involvement paralleled their length of exposure to the host society (as measured by the students' generational status). The relationship between various sociopsychological factors and the students' drug use involvement was also analyzed via a multiple regression/correlation analysis. It was found that all of the factors studied were related to drug use involvement among the Puerto Rican students surveyed. Moreover, it was found that the strength of the relationship between all of the sociopsychological factors studied and drug use involvement varied with the generational status of the Puerto Rican adolescent. Given the lack of research in the area of drug use among minority adolescents, especially among Puerto Ricans, this dissertation is seen as an attempt to start filling some of this need as decried by many.