This article presents the results of a key-informant mail survey conducted with thirty-nine community leaders and local workers of the three main groups of the Boston area Portuguese speaking community, namely Brazilians, Cape Verdeans, and Portuguese. They were asked to rank on the questionnaire the frequency with which some youth problems—identified in the literature as risk factors for substance abuse—were present in the community. Six of the ten most cited problems were family-related, such as inter-generational cultural differences, poor family management skills, and social isolation of family.
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