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Religion's role in influencing adolescent substance abuse
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Seffrin Article Review
The intention of this review is to give an overview of the article “Alcohol Use Among Black and White Adolescents: Exploring the Influence of Interracial Friendship, the Racial Composition of Peer Groups, and Communities” by Patrick Seffrin. This article looked at racial segregation, peer group compositions, and other social norms in the context of differential association in order to explain the factors that may contribute to the consumption of alcohol between black and white adolescents.
Literature Review
From previous studies that have been conducted, it has been shown that rates of alcohol consumption for black adolescents have been significantly lower than that for white adolescents. Many factors have been looked
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This asked the youth to give demographic characteristics for friends in their peer group. Racial composition was broken into three variables: black, white, and other. Interracial friendship was measured by the number of friends of a different race.
The next measure was residential segregation. This measure has an effect on interracial friendship and racial composition through the opportunities for contact. This is measured by the levels of racial segregation in the adolescent’s neighborhood.
Alcohol risk and protective factors are the next measure. Peer socializing is one of these variables, which looks at questions such as “how often do you hang out with friends, go to the home of one of your friends, see friends on the weekends, and hang out with the opposite sex” (Seffrin, 2012). Parent supervision, another variable, is measured using the question “how often do your parents let you make your own decisions about: when to be home on the weekends, who you hang around with, your social life, who you date, and how often you can date” (Seffrin, 2012). The final variable is religious importance, measured with the question “how important is religion in your life” (Seffrin,
high school students age 14 - 17, 60% of the students use alcohol once a week,
Charles, Camille (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual Review of Sociology, 167. Retrieved from http://jstor.org/stable/30036965.
Schaefer, R. (Ed.). (2012). Racial and ethnic groups. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
...wed as young adults almost ready for the life in society almost unfit for high school at their age. Race is another important factor that influences student’s perceptions society. Asians are expected to be more academically distinguished and stuck-up. African Americans are expected to stand lower academically and more likely to get into trouble similarly to Hispanics. All of the sometimes imagined or overgeneralized assumptions greatly influence relations within individuals and groups.
There are an estimated 3.3 million teen-age alcoholics in the United States. Adolescents who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin drinking at age 21. Youth who drink alcohol are five times more likely to smoke cigarettes, four times more likely to smoke marijuana and three times more likely to use an illicit drug. Teens that use alcohol tend to become sexually active at earlier ages. Teens who use alcohol are more likely to be victims of violent crimes such as aggravated assault, robbery or rape.
...n White, eds. Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns Reexamined. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1991.
Schaefer, R. (Ed.). (2012). Racial and ethnic groups. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
The practice of ethnic separation and segregation is common on every college and university campus. Since this practice has happened through history, it is remarkable that this has only been recognized recently as a true problem (Jacobs, 2). Segregation has hampered America as long as it has existed. Ethnicity and segregation was nearly the cause of this country splitting apart during the Civil War. Since then reformation and hard work has attempted to bring unity to this country. Though today, college students have regressed, university pupils are "standing by" their own and are not branching out to those who are unlike them in ethnicity. People in general, but more specifically college students are segregated in their lives ( Kramer, 12). From the way they act, what they do or do not do, the type of people they socialize with, to where people sit - students are split. College students group together as a result of ethnicity at events and establishments or locations on university campuses.
Since the two factors went in different directions at the same time it seems that the change in residential locations is not the sole cause for segregation of schools. However the study found that in 1990 schools showed less segregation than neighborhoods, which is an indicator that during this time period local legislation or policies were instrumental in lowering the effects of residence based segregation however, in 2000 is seemed that public policies were no longer being instituted as commonplace as before leading to increasing correlation between residential segregation and school segregation. This is supported by a study done in 2013 which showed that school segregation increased over the decade of 2000 to 2010
This article speaks of adolescent alcohol use and abuse. It examines the lack of research done on adolescent health issues and the current knowledge of the consequences of adolescent alcohol consumption. The article also presents strategies on how to inform and clarify the issues of adolescent alcohol abuse.
The increase consumption of alcohol and drugs by adolescences is not just a problem for the United States it is a multicultural national problem. Separating by race, Native American teens had the highest level of drug use, with nearly 48 percent reporting having used substances in the last year. That group is followed by 39 percent of white teens, almost 37 percent of Hispanics, 36 percent of multi-racial adolescents, 32 percent of blacks and nearly 24 percent of Asians. "There is certainly still a myth out there that black kids are more likely to have problems with drugs than white kids, and this documents as clearly as any study we're aware of that the rate of substance-related disorders among African American youths is significantly lower," ( Dan Blazer from Duke's Department of Psychiatry, a senior author of the study, told the Raleigh News & Observer).
According to PEW study by Richard Fry and Paul Taylor, the study found that 28% of lower-income households in 2010 were located in a majority lower-income census tract, which is up from 23% in 1980. An analysis of the act of residential segregation throughout the US has revealed many challenges that the youth in America either are facing at this very moment or can and will continue to be an ongoing issue throughout neighborhoods. The question of how this form of segregation began? And how does residential segregation effect those involved.
Residential Segregation Today, there are many Americans that believe racism ended with Jim Crow laws being abolished. Many believe it ended when “Separate but Equal” was no longer legal, and most recently people point to former President Obama and believe race is no longer an issue in the United States of America. These people are wrong for so many reasons, but one of the biggest is that white Americans are segregating themselves from minorities. According to Bonilla-Silva and Embrick, only a few white Americans are integrated. Only four out of forty-one students have lived in a residential neighborhood with a significant black presence (Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo and Embrick, David).
Although alcoholism is not necessarily constrained to one demographic, the prevalence of alcoholism, especially in underage drinkers, seems to be of growing concern. In the last five years alone, underage age drinking has seen a startling and rather significant increase. For example, in 2009, about 59.3% of high school seniors had consumed alcohol. The same poll, taken in 2014, showed that 65.7% had now participated in the consumption of alcohol, despite being underage (Whillenburg 3).
Smith, Karen. “Alcohol Use by youth and Adolescents: A Pediatric Concern.” Pediatric American Academy of Pediatrics. 12 April, 2010. Web. 26 March, 2014. .