Use of illegal drugs among mothers across racial/ethnic groups in the United States: a multi-level analysis of individual and community level influences.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain adjusted one-year prevalence estimates and compare multi-level correlates of marijuana, cocaine, crack, or heroin use among 4,678 mothers of minor children in the United States across racial/ethnic populations. METHODS: The study used publicly available data from the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) procedures were used to test drug use variation among non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic mothers across US neighborhoods. RESULTS: Black mothers were 40% less likely to use illegal drugs than were White mothers, and Hispanic mothers were 72% less likely than were White mothers to use drugs, after adjusting for demographic and community covariates. Drug use was found to vary across neighborhoods for all racial/ethnic groups. This study identified a positive association between the likelihood of mothers using illegal drugs and their living in neighborhoods with a higher occurrence of drug use. CONCLUSION: To compare drug use across racial/ethnic groups, it is necessary to account for the confounding effects of covariates. Additional research is needed to determine whether non-drug using mothers chose to live in neighborhoods with a lower concentration of drug use, whether residence in these neighborhoods decreases the likelihood of mothers using drugs, or if a reciprocal relationship exists. The mechanisms that link individual drug use and neighborhood characteristics merit further investigation.

Effects of parental involvement on the functioning of noninstitutionalized adults with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVES: The study described the nature and extent of parental families' involvement with adult children with schizophrenia who lived in noninstitutional settings in the community and examined the association between families' involvement and the adult children's clinical and psychosocial functioning. METHODS: A total of 193 subjects with schizophrenia were interviewed to obtain data on their contact with their families, clinical and psychosocial functioning, risk of victimization and substance use, and global functioning. RESULTS: Twenty-three percent of the subjects lived with their parental families on some time during the previous six months. Nearly two-thirds of those who did not live with their families had contact with them an average of twice a week. Subjects who did not live with their families scored significantly higher on global functioning and on measures of contact with friends, dating, number of days worked, independence from family, and stability of living situation. Those who lived with their families were less likely to have been victimized or to have used substances. Among subjects who did not live with their families, those who maintained contact scored higher than those without contact on measures of days worked and overall role functioning. CONCLUSIONS: The nature of parental families' involvement with adult children with schizophrenia varied widely. Whether families' involvement was associated with higher levels of functioning varied with the subjects' living situation.