Substance Abuse and Mexican American Youth: An Overview

Abstract

The reasons for substance abuse by Mexican American youth can be viewed from six viewpoints including: biological, cultural, psychological, family dynamics, socioeconomic status, and structural-environmental determinism. Cultural/historical use of alcohol in Mexican culture is best conceptualized as starting with ritualization of alcohol use in Aztec religious rites. The article then evaluates the existent literature from the six viewpoints. It is concluded from an in-depth review of the literature that little data-based cross-cultural work has been done documenting adolescent drug use patterns in Mexican American versus Anglo groups. In the data that exists Mexican American youth, by-and-large, do not have greater rates of use, except for those from the lowest socioeconomic status levels. The overall conclusion is that Mexican American youth drug use patterns may be less related to cultural factors and more related to poverty factors. Hence, intervention into the cycle of poverty and deprivation resulting directly from it is seen to be a critical necessity in reduction of youthful drug abuse in the Mexican American community.