Substance Abuse among American Indian Youth: A Continuing Crisis

Abstract

The endemic quality of alcohol abuse among American Indians is well documented. In the last decade, a growing body of research has also documented disproportionately high rates of alcohol as well as inhalant and drug use among American Indian youth. This article reviews the literature, to date, which specifically addresses this social and health problem.

Beer drinking predominates and is disproportionately higher among American Indian youth than among Whites or any other ethnic minority youth group. Indian youths also use inhalants and marijuana at disproportionately higher rates. Their use of other types of street drugs, however, parallels the national norm.

Factors such as peer group encouragement, laissez-faire child-rearing practices, conflicts between cultural ideals and behavioral realities, parental and community attitudes about drug use, and the concomitant adult drug use models all contribute to a cultural matrix which either exacerbates or retards drug use.