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Is the Association between Neighborhood Drug Prevalence and Marijuana use Independent of Peer Drug and Alcohol Norms? Results from a Household Survey of Urban Youth

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Abstract

To inform policy debates surrounding marijuana decriminalization and add to our understanding of social and structural influences on youth drug use, we sought to determine whether there was an independent association between neighborhood drug prevalence and individual-level marijuana use after controlling for peer drug and alcohol norms. We analyzed cross-sectional data from a household survey of 563 youth aged 15–24 in Baltimore, Maryland. The study population was 88 % African-American. Using gender-stratified, weighted, multilevel logistic regression, we tested whether neighborhood drug prevalence was associated with individual-level marijuana use after controlling for peer drug and alcohol norms. Bivariate analyses identified a significant association between high neighborhood drug prevalence and marijuana use among female youth (AOR = 1.76, 95 % CI = 1.26, 2.47); the association was in a similar direction but not significant among male youth (AOR = 1.26, 95 % CI = 0.85, 1.87). In multivariable regression controlling for peer drug and alcohol norms, high neighborhood drug prevalence remained significantly associated among female youth (AOR = 1.59, 95 % CI = 1.12, 2.27). Among male youth, the association was attenuated toward the null (AOR = 0.95, 95 % CI = 0.63, 1.45). In the multivariable model, peer drug and alcohol norms were significantly associated with individual-level marijuana use among female youth (AOR = 1.54, 95 % CI = 1.17, 2.04) and male youth (AOR = 2.59, 95 % CI = 1.65, 4.07). This work suggests that individual-level marijuana use among female youth is associated with neighborhood drug prevalence independent of peer norms. This finding may have important implications as the policy landscape around marijuana use changes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Debra Furr-Holden for her collaboration in collecting neighborhood disorder data using methodology from her Baltimore-based NIFETY study. The authors also thank the young men and women who participated in the studies represented and the Neighborhood Influences on Adolescent and Adult Health (NIAAH) study field staff for their data collection efforts. All other individuals who contributed to this research are listed above as named authors.

Grant Support

This study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (grant number R01 A149530) with supplemental funding from the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Jennings was supported for this work by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (K01 DA022298-01A1). The funding organization had no role in study design, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, the writing of this manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Child & Community Health Research, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Mason F. Lord Building, Center Tower-Suite 4200, 5200 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21224, USA

    Kathryn M. Leifheit, Jenita Parekh, Pamela A. Matson, Jonathan M. Ellen & Jacky M. Jennings

  2. Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Kathryn M. Leifheit & Lawrence H. Moulton

  3. Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Jenita Parekh

  4. Department of Pediatrics, All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 501 6th Ave S, St Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Jonathan M. Ellen

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Jacky M. Jennings

  6. Center for Child and Community Health Research (CCHR), Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Bayview Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University, 5200 Eastern Ave, Mason F Lord Building, Center Tower Suite 4200, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jacky M. Jennings

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  1. Kathryn M. Leifheit
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Correspondence to Jacky M. Jennings.

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Leifheit, K.M., Parekh, J., Matson, P.A. et al. Is the Association between Neighborhood Drug Prevalence and Marijuana use Independent of Peer Drug and Alcohol Norms? Results from a Household Survey of Urban Youth. J Urban Health 92, 773–783 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-015-9962-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-015-9962-3

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