Risk and protective factors of social networks on alcohol, cannabis, and opioid use among urban American Indian/Alaska Native emerging adults

Abstract

Objectives: Assess associations between social networks and urban American Indian/Alaska Native emerging adults' alcohol, cannabis, and opioid use and intentions.

Method: American Indian/Alaska Native participants ages 18-25 (N = 150; 86% female) were recruited across the United States from 12/20 to 10/21 via social media. Participants named up to 15 people whom they talked with most over the past 3 months and reported who (a) used alcohol and cannabis heavily or used other drugs (e.g., opioid use), (b) engaged in traditional practices, and (c) provided support. They also reported past 3-month alcohol, cannabis, and opioid use and intentions to use.

Results: Having a higher proportion of network members engaging in regular cannabis and heavy alcohol use (but not other drugs) was associated with more frequent cannabis use and stronger cannabis use intentions. Participants with higher proportions of members engaging in heavy alcohol use, regular cannabis use, or other drug use and who did not engage in traditional practices were more likely to report cannabis use and greater intentions to use cannabis and drink alcohol. In contrast, participants with higher proportions of network members engaging in traditional practices and who did not report heavy alcohol use, regular cannabis use, or other drug use were less likely to report intentions to use cannabis or drink alcohol.

Conclusions: Findings emphasize what many studies have shown among various racial/ethnic groups-having network members who use substances increases the chance of use. Findings also highlight that traditional practices may be an important part of the prevention approach for this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04617938.

Figure 1.

Histograms and example personal network diagrams illustrating frequency distribution of proportions of network members engaging in heavy AOD use (left panel) and traditional practices (right panel). Each histogram depicts the count of egocentric networks across all interviews (y-axis) within a range of proportion of network members with that characteristic (x-axis). Three egocentric diagrams appear below each histogram to provide illustration of egocentric networks with different proportions of alters with the highlighted characteristic. Each circle or “node” in each egocentric diagram depict an “alter” named by a respondent and lines/”edges” between each node represent alters who the respondent indicated know each other. Each egocentric network is labeled with the percentage of network members with the alter characteristic illustrated by the histogram. Each histogram also includes a dashed, vertical bar indicating the overall mean proportion across all networks. On average, those reporting heavy AOD use represent 34% of network members named by participants and network members engaged in traditional practices represent 25% of networks, on average. Network diagrams represent the networks of individual participants who have varying proportions of the different types of network members. Network members who participants reported engaged in heavy AOD use are depicted with larger red circles; Members who participants reported did not use alcohol or drugs are depicted with small blue circles. Network members who participants reported engaged in traditional practices are depicted with large green circles and those who did not are depicted with small blue circles.

Figure 2.

Histograms and example personal network diagrams illustrating frequency distributions of multiplex social network variables that combine AOD use and traditional practices. Each histogram depicts the count of egocentric networks across all interviews (y-axis) within a range of proportion of network members with that characteristic (x-axis). Three egocentric diagrams appear below each histogram to provide illustration of egocentric networks with different proportions of alters with the highlighted characteristic. Each circle or “node” in each egocentric diagram depict an “alter” named by a respondent and lines/”edges” between each node represent alters who the respondent indicated know each other. Each egocentric network is labeled with the percentage of network members with the alter characteristic illustrated by the histogram. Each histogram also includes a dashed, vertical bar indicating the overall mean proportion across all networks. On average, networks had 17% of network members who engaged in traditional practices but not AOD use, 26% of network members who engaged in AOD use but not traditional practices, and 8% of those who engaged in both. The three network diagrams below the histogram represent the networks of individual participants who have varying proportions of these variables. Network members who participants reported engaged in heavy AOD use and did not engage in traditional practices are depicted with large red circles, members reporting no AOD use and who engaged in traditional practices are represented with large green circles, and those who engaged in both AOD use and traditional practices are represented by large brown circles. Those who participants reported did not engage in either are depicted with small gray circles.