Teasing and alcohol drinking among African American adolescents in Chicago's Southside: Implications for nursing practice.

OBJECTIVE: Guided by the routine activity theory, the current study proposes and tests pathways by which an absence of a capable guardian can contribute to interactions with motivated offenders and suitable targets, increasing the likelihood of teasing others and using alcohol. SAMPLE: The study participants consisted of 612 African American adolescents in four low-income neighborhoods in Chicago's Southside. MEASURES: Measures include alcohol use, absence of a capable guardian, the presence of a motivated offender, target suitability, and teasing. Covariates include age, biological sex, and government assistance. Analyses included descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The absence of a capable guardian variable positively correlated with the presence of a motivated offender. The presence of a motivated offender variable was positively associated with target suitability, which was positively related to teasing and alcohol use. The presence of a motivated offender and target suitability variables were positively associated with teasing and alcohol use. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the importance of capable guardians and potentially have implications for nursing practice.

Racial/Ethnic Bullying Subtypes and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Marijuana Use Among US Adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The study examines the rate of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among White, African American, and Latino adolescents and whether racial/ethnic bullying subtypes (victim-only, bullies-only, and bully/victim) are related to alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use. METHODS: We used data from the 2009-2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (n = 9863) to examine differences in alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among White, African American, and Latino adolescents in the USA, and assessed whether racial/ethnic bullying involvement was associated with alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among these adolescents. Adolescents were categorized into four groups based on whether they had experienced racial bullying perpetration, victimization, both perpetration, and victimization, or neither perpetration nor victimization. Descriptive statistics were conducted to examine the distributions of the study variables and describe the samples. Spearman's rank-order correlation analyses were used to examine the relationships among the variables. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to examine alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among the racial bully victimization, perpetration, and victimization-perpetration groups compared to the non-involved group by race/ethnicity. RESULTS: The White victim-only group was more likely to use alcohol but less likely to use tobacco. The African American victim-only group was more likely to use alcohol, and the bully/victim group was more likely to use marijuana. The Latino victim-only group was more likely to use alcohol, whereas the bully/victim group was more likely to use tobacco. CONCLUSION: Our findings have implications for the development and implementation of prevention and intervention programs across different racial/ethnic adolescent groups.

Self-perceived emerging adult status and substance use.

Very little research exists on how self-perceived emerging adult status is associated with substance use among low-income emerging adults. The Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) was administered to emerging adults (EAs) ages 18-25 screened for substance use problems (n = l05) in a state-subsidized, not-for-profit treatment agency. We examined whether the defining dimensions of Arnett's (2000a) emerging adulthood theory were associated with substance use frequency and substance-related problems, including: identity exploration, self-focus, possibilities, optimism, negativity/instability, and feeling in-between. In multivariate models, feeling in-between was positively associated with substance-related problems. An interaction term between minority status and feeling in-between approached statistical significance (p = .057). Further, IDEA scale score means were comparable to those found in college student samples. Implications for theory revision are discussed.