Community Disadvantage and Substance Use among Rural and Urban Adolescents, 1976-2019

• In Event: Generational Change in Youth Behaviors and Attitudes: New Insights from the MTF Data, 1976–2019

Abstract

Although limited research examines the association between community disadvantage and hard drug use among adolescents, little is known about how the association varies across urban, metropolitan, and rural areas or/and across time periods. Using repeated cross-sectional data from twelfth-grade students in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study (1976-2019), we investigate whether community disadvantage is associated with hard drug use—such as the use of heroin, hallucinogens, and cocaine—across these geographic contexts and time periods. Overall, we found hard drug use has declined since the late 1990s, and drug use was the most prevalent in most affluent and most disadvantaged communities. Further, the community-drug use association varies across contexts and periods. No significant association between community disadvantages and hard drug use in rural areas. However, urban and metropolitan areas experience a threshold effect, where hard drug use remains relatively low at moderate levels of disadvantage but rises disproportionately in highly disadvantaged communities for two decades from 1976 to 1995, considering individual-level factors. Overall, these findings highlight the need for place-specific interventions in urban and metropolitan areas where extreme disadvantage increases hard drug use. In addition, future scholars should explore alternative predictors of hard drug use in rural areas.

Authors

• Rachel Zhang, University of Tampa

• Chandler Fairbanks, University at Buffalo

• Sophia Olsinski, State University of New York at Buffalo