Velez C N, Ungemack J A
Division of Sociomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
Soc Sci Med. 1989;29(6):779-89. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(89)90158-5.
An analysis of the relationship between generational status, or a migrational experience, and adolescent drug use takes advantage of a natural experiment--the migration of Puerto Ricans to the continental United States and their immigration back to the island. Although researchers have studied different sources of variation in adolescent drug use behavior, few have examined the drug use experience of the same ethnic group in varying sociocultural settings. The present study focused on the drug use involvement of four generational status groups of Puerto Rican adolescents in two different settings--New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The groups surveyed in New York City were: New York Ricans (New York City-born Puerto Ricans) and New York migrants (island-born Puerto Rican adolescents). The two groups identified in Puerto Rico were: Puerto Rican islanders (adolescents who had never lived outside of Puerto Rico) and Puerto Rican immigrants (New York City-born youngsters of Puerto Rican parentage whose families had returned to live on the island). In this study, it was hypothesized that the more the perceived environment dimensions of the different generational status groups have characteristics conducive to drug use, the greater the drug use involvement of the groups will be. The analysis confirmed that the drug use involvement of the four groups of Puerto Rican adolescents paralleled the exposure of the groups to a host society, New York City, which has a higher prevalence of adolescent drug use than the culture of origin, Puerto Rico. In addition, it was found that the longer New York migrants lived in New York City, the greater was their drug use involvement. The roles of various other sociodemographic factors (i.e. gender, grade level, family structure and socioeconomic status) in relation to adolescent drug use were also investigated. Two important conditional relationships were documented. First, the impact of length of time living in New York City varied with the adolescent's gender, with higher risk of drug involvement observed for female migrants. Second, socioeconomic status was associated with Puerto Rican adolescents' drug use involvement in the New York City subgroups, but not among the students in Puerto Rico.
对代际身份或移民经历与青少年吸毒之间关系的分析利用了一项自然实验——波多黎各人向美国大陆的迁移以及他们返回该岛的移民情况。尽管研究人员已经研究了青少年吸毒行为的不同变异来源，但很少有人研究同一族群在不同社会文化背景下的吸毒经历。本研究聚焦于纽约市和波多黎各圣胡安这两个不同环境中波多黎各青少年四个代际身份群体的吸毒情况。在纽约市调查的群体有：纽约裔波多黎各人（出生在纽约市的波多黎各人）和纽约移民（出生在岛上的波多黎各青少年）。在波多黎各确定的两个群体是：波多黎各岛民（从未在波多黎各以外生活过的青少年）和波多黎各移民（父母为波多黎各人、出生在纽约市且其家庭已返回该岛生活的年轻人）。在本研究中，假设不同代际身份群体所感知的环境维度越具有有利于吸毒的特征，这些群体的吸毒情况就会越严重。分析证实，四组波多黎各青少年的吸毒情况与这些群体接触纽约市这个东道社会的程度平行，纽约市青少年吸毒的流行率高于其原籍文化波多黎各。此外，还发现纽约移民在纽约市居住的时间越长，他们的吸毒情况就越严重。还研究了其他各种社会人口因素（即性别、年级、家庭结构和社会经济地位）与青少年吸毒的关系。记录了两个重要的条件关系。第一，在纽约市生活时间的影响因青少年的性别而异，女性移民吸毒的风险更高。第二，社会经济地位与纽约市各亚组中波多黎各青少年的吸毒情况有关，但在波多黎各的学生中则不然。
