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Subjective Social Status, Immigrant Generation, and Cannabis and Alcohol Use Among Adolescents

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Abstract

Research indicates that subjective perceptions of socioeconomic status (SES) affect aspects of health and behavior. There has been little research attention to how objective (e.g., education) and subjective aspects of SES may differ in their influence on the substance use of adolescent immigrants. The present study examined whether the associations between subjective SES and substance use, and between parental education and substance use varied by immigrant generation. Data were derived from the 2011 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, a representative survey of students in the 7th to 12th grade. The sample for this study consisted of 9177 students 12–19 years of age; 48.4 % were female, 66.4 % were White/European, 5.2 % Black/Afro-Caribbean, 16.4 % Asian and 12 % other. Results indicated that subjective SES was more strongly associated with cannabis and alcohol use among first-generation immigrants than among adolescents of other immigrant generations even after adjusting for parental education. First-generation immigrants with low subjective SES had a lower probability of cannabis and regular alcohol use, but there was no difference in use between immigrant generations at high subjective SES. The associations between parental education and cannabis and alcohol use did not significantly vary with immigrant generation. The findings highlight the importance of status beliefs among adolescents, particularly among first-generation immigrants, and suggest that further research attention to such beliefs would enhance our understanding of SES and its links to adolescent health risk behaviors.

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Acknowledgments

The OSDUHS was funded in part through ongoing and targeted funding from several provincial agencies (PI: R. Mann).

Author contributions

HH was the lead in developing the hypotheses, conducted most of the data analysis, and wrote most of the manuscript content. M. V. assisted with the data analysis and manuscript preparation, and critically reviewed the manuscript. A. B. participated in the design and coordination of the survey on which the analyses are based, provided assistance during data analysis, and critically reviewed the manuscript. R. M. is the principal investigator of the survey on which the analyses are based and provided critical reviews of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell St., 5th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S1, Canada

    Hayley A. Hamilton, Angela Boak & Robert E. Mann

  2. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Hayley A. Hamilton & Robert E. Mann

  3. Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Mark van der Maas

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Hamilton, H.A., van der Maas, M., Boak, A. et al. Subjective Social Status, Immigrant Generation, and Cannabis and Alcohol Use Among Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 43, 1163–1175 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-0054-y

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