Drug abuse risks for acculturating immigrant adolescents: case study of Asian Indians in the United States

Abstract

Immigrant parents and their U.S.-born children may experience stressful family conflicts over the disparate sociocultural norms of the United States and their country of origin. Such stresses may heighten adolescents' vulnerability to drug abuse. This article documents the extent of drug use in a sample of 200 U.S.-born Asian Indian adolescents. According to the study participants' self-reports on lifetime use, 28 percent had used alcohol on at least one occasion, 16.5 percent had used cigarettes, and 2.5 percent had used marijuana. Adolescents who placed importance on their parents' drug abuse prevention messages tended not to use drugs. The implications of the study's findings for drug abuse assessment, treatment, and prevention are discussed.