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Concern for Police Brutality, Societal Discrimination, and School Shootings and Subsequent Cigarette and Cannabis Use in Los Angeles County Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Youth: a Longitudinal Study

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Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Examine if concerns for police brutality, societal discrimination, and school shootings relate to subsequent cigarette and cannabis use among Hispanic and non-Hispanic White (NHW) youth. Hispanic youth may be particularly vulnerable to such concern.

Methods

Data are from the University of Southern California’s Happiness and Health Survey, a prospective cohort study, which followed Hispanic (N = 1007) and NHW (N = 251) students from ten inner-city and suburban high schools in Los Angeles County, starting from 2013 until 2019. Participants reported concern, worry, and stress levels regarding police brutality, societal discrimination, and school shootings. Four categories were created to indicate levels of each concern variable over time (consistently low, decreased, increased, and consistently high). Associations with past-30-day cannabis, blunt, THC-oil, and cigarette use in 2019 were assessed. Separate models for each racial/ethnic category were used.

Results

Among Hispanic participants, reporting consistently high concern about police brutality (vs. consistently low concern) was associated with higher odds to subsequently smoke cannabis (aOR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.18–2.40), smoke blunts (aOR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.11–2.39), and vape THC-oil (aOR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.14–2.44). Hispanic participants who reported consistently high concern for societal discrimination also had higher odds (vs. consistently low concern) to subsequently smoke blunts (aOR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.04–2.29) and vape THC-oil (aOR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.12–2.43). Among NHW participants, increasing concern over school shootings (vs. consistently low concern) was associated with higher odds to subsequently smoke cannabis (aOR = 2.98, 95% CI = 1.08–7.70).

Conclusions

Concerns for police brutality, societal discrimination, and school shootings were associated with cannabis use especially among Hispanic participants. Providing Hispanic youth with healthy coping strategies may reduce cannabis use.

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Data Availability

Data are available upon request to co-author AML (adam.leventhal@usc.edu).

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Funding

Ms. Hacker and Dr. Choi were supported by the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. This work was also supported by National Cancer Institute and National Institute on Drug Abuse and (Grant number: K24-DA048160; PI: Dr. Leventhal; R01-CA229617; PI: Drs. Leventhal and Barrington-Trimis; R01-DA033296; PI: Dr. Leventhal). The funding agencies had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Division of Intramural Research, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Kiana J. Hacker & Kelvin Choi

  2. Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, USA

    Julia Chen-Sankey

  3. Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Adam M. Leventhal

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Adam M. Leventhal

  5. Institute for Addiction Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Adam M. Leventhal

Authors
  1. Kiana J. Hacker
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  2. Julia Chen-Sankey
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  3. Adam M. Leventhal
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  4. Kelvin Choi
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Contributions

Kiana Hacker: conceptualization, software, formal analysis, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. Julia Chen-Sankey: writing—review and editing. Adam Leventhal: investigation, recourses, data curation, writing—review and editing, project administration, and funding acquisition. Kelvin Choi: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kiana J. Hacker.

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Ethics Approval

The current study was approved by the institutional review board of the University of Southern California, which follows Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guidelines for cross-sectional studies in addition to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) reporting guidelines for surveys.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Public Health Significance Statement

This study indicates that concerns over police brutality and social injustice are increasing marijuana smoking, blunt smoking, and THC-oil vaping among Hispanic adolescents.

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Hacker, K.J., Chen-Sankey, J., Leventhal, A.M. et al. Concern for Police Brutality, Societal Discrimination, and School Shootings and Subsequent Cigarette and Cannabis Use in Los Angeles County Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Youth: a Longitudinal Study. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01787-z

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