DRUG USE IN RURAL KENTUCKY--A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

University Of Kentucky, Lexington KY

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Abstract

This application is submitted in response to PA-95-060, Drug and Alcohol Use and Abuse in Rural American. Overall objective is to develop/test multilevel social control model of adolescent drug use, integrating macro/micro theoretical perspectives. Drug use and individual level social control processes that lead to drug use will be embedded within school and community contexts along the rural-urban continuum. Conditional influences of school and community on drug use and individual level processes leading to drug use can be determined and modeled and the heterogeneity for contextual effects can be examined across communities. Specific Aim 1: to measure incidence/prevalence of drug use in a cohort of 7th graders, 1999-00 AY baseline (followed through 10th grade) in schools and communities in Kentucky across the rural-urban continuum; Specific Aim 2: to examine the impact of individual level social control/bonding variables in predicting adolescent drug use, and to determine whether drug use/social bonding effects are similar or different across schools and communities in Kentucky; Specific Aim 3: to examine impact of school and community level factors on drug use and the individual level effects on drug use across schools and communities in Kentucky; Specific Aim 4: to compare multilevel models of rural drug use and urban drug use to determine: a) the extent of rural heterogeneity; b) the utility (or futility) in conceptualizing "rural and urban" as dichotomous; Specific Aim 5: to determine the extent to which individual, school and community factors affect variation over time in adolescent drug use. Recognition/examination of heterogeneity across rural contexts in particular (in contrast to heterogenous urban contexts) is necessary if we are to understand patterns of Drug and Alcohol Use and Abuse in Rural America. This is a prospective longitudinal study of one cohort (7th graders, 1999-00 AY, n=10,000) attending 66 middle schools in a stratified, random sample of 30 counties, 4 by population size of county), and a sample of teachers from same schools. Cohort will be followed for 4 years through 10th grade into 45 high schools. HLM and latent growth curve modeling techniques will be used to test the theoretical models driving the research.