Blacks disproportionately reside in urban neighborhoods characterized by crime, poverty, drugs and violence. They are more likely to experience prolonged unemployment, be incarcerated, become homeless and have fewer financial resources available to them compared to Whites. They are also more likely to report serious psychological distress. Blacks are eight times more likely to be infected with HIV, accounting for 44% of HIV infections in the United States in 2010. This application is for a competitive renewal of the Progression and Clustering of Marijuana Use in African-American Neighborhoods study (DA032550). Using data from a cohort of Black youth living in Baltimore, we examined the influence of neighborhood environment on marijuana use during adolescence. Our data suggest that despite facing challenges and adversity that the majority of American youth never encounter, many Black youth do not exhibit the risk behaviors shown to be associated with growing up in distressed, urban neighborhoods. There is scant research, however, focused on understanding the process by which Black youth successfully adapt to the challenges faced in these neighborhoods.
We aim to fill this gap by conducting a series of new analyses from this cohort to identify factors at multiple ecological levels that moderate the effects of living in a distressed urban neighborhood on risk behavior trajectories during the life course. In our prior award, we focused on adolescence. With this renewal award, we will extend our work to emerging adulthood; a period frequently marked by increased risk- taking and as well as social role transitions than can redirect a trajectory. We will expand our inquiry to include other substances as well as trajectories of violent and sexual risk behavior that often co-occur with drug use.
The Specific Aims of this research project are to 1) identify individual and joint trajectories of drug use, violence and sexual risk behaviors from adolescence to emerging adulthood and estimate the influence of living in a distressed urban neighborhood on these trajectories, 2) identify factors present at multiple ecological levels during adolescence that moderate the effects of living in a distressed urban neighborhood on risk behavior trajectories, 3) estimate the influence of risk behavior trajectories on young adult socioeconomic, mental health, drug, crime and sexual risk outcomes, and 4) assess the impact of social role transitions on risk behavior trajectories and young adult outcomes. This is one of the few studies that follow low-income, urban Blacks from childhood to emerging adulthood. It has the potential to inform both public health interventionists and policy-makers of ways Black youth and young adults living in distressed neighborhoods can be provided with the opportunities, supports and services necessary to promote positive development at a time when drug use is pervasive, violence is on the rise and concentrated poverty continues to grow in America's inner cities.

Public Health Relevance

Blacks disproportionately reside in urban neighborhoods characterized by crime, poverty, drugs, violence and HIV; however, many Black youth do not exhibit the risk behaviors associated with growing up in these neighborhoods. By focusing on protective factors at multiple levels of the socioecological model from adolescence to emerging adulthood, new understandings of the process by which Blacks successfully adapt to the challenges faced in these neighborhoods will lead to prevention efforts that foster factors that support successful social adaptation among urban-dwelling Blacks for whom effective programs are needed.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA032550-05
Application #
9351490
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Etz, Kathleen
Project Start
2012-09-15
Project End
2019-07-31
Budget Start
2017-08-01
Budget End
2018-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
937727907
City
Winston-Salem
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27157
Reboussin, Beth A; Ialongo, Nicholas S; Green, Kerry M et al. (2018) The Impact of the Urban Neighborhood Environment on Marijuana Trajectories During Emerging Adulthood. Prev Sci :
Green, Kerry M; Musci, Rashelle J; Matson, Pamela A et al. (2017) Developmental Patterns of Adolescent Marijuana and Alcohol Use and Their Joint Association with Sexual Risk Behavior and Outcomes in Young Adulthood. J Urban Health 94:115-124
Milam, Adam J; Johnson, Renee M; Nesoff, Elizabeth D et al. (2016) Evaluating Nighttime Observational Measures of Neighborhood Disorder: Validity of the Nighttime NIfETy Assessment. J Environ Psychol 45:97-102
Green, Kerry M; Musci, Rashelle J; Johnson, Renee M et al. (2016) Outcomes associated with adolescent marijuana and alcohol use among urban young adults: A prospective study. Addict Behav 53:155-60
Reboussin, Beth A; Milam, Adam J; Green, Kerry M et al. (2016) Clustering of Black Adolescent Marijuana Use in Low-Income, Urban Neighborhoods. J Urban Health 93:109-16
Green, Kerry M; Johnson, Renee M; Milam, Adam J et al. (2016) Racial differences and the role of neighborhood in the sequencing of marijuana and tobacco initiation among urban youth. Subst Abus 37:507-510
Furr-Holden, C Debra M; Lee, Myong Hwa; Johnson, Renee et al. (2015) Neighborhood environment and marijuana use in urban young adults. Prev Sci 16:268-78
Reboussin, Beth A; Ialongo, Nicholas S; Green, Kerry M (2015) Influences of behavior and academic problems at school entry on marijuana use transitions during adolescence in an African-American sample. Addict Behav 41:51-7
Reboussin, Beth A; Green, Kerry M; Milam, Adam J et al. (2015) The role of neighborhood in urban black adolescent marijuana use. Drug Alcohol Depend 154:69-75
Reboussin, Beth A; Green, Kerry M; Milam, Adam J et al. (2014) Neighborhood environment and urban African American marijuana use during high school. J Urban Health 91:1189-201