The role of ethnicity and neighborhood poverty on the relationship between parenting and adolescent cigarette use.

Although etiological models of substance use may be different across ethnic groups, how ethnicity might moderate the influence of causal factors is not frequently tested. The influence of parenting on adolescent cigarette smoking may vary across Black and White adolescents. Recent research suggests that parenting may be more strongly predictive of substance use among Blacks. Black parents not only may feel more efficacious in their parenting, compared with their White counterparts, but also may be more likely to set strict rules against smoking. As a result, Black parents may be more effective in preventing their children from engaging in smoking behavior. Also, research suggests that these ethnic differences may vary across community contexts. The present study examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally how ethnicity moderates the relationship between parenting and adolescent cigarette use, and how this moderating effect varies across levels of community risk. A three-way ethnicity x parenting x community risk interaction was tested in a sample of adolescents selected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). In general, positive parenting behaviors (e.g., high parental control, high-quality relationship) were related to lower levels of smoking for both Black and White youth; however, when differences were found, this relationship was stronger for Whites. Also, the influence of neighborhood poverty was limited to smoking for White adolescents such that higher levels of neighborhood poverty were associated with increased smoking for White but not Black adolescents. These differences may be related to several factors, including how children are socialized in Black and White families, ethnic differences in reasons for using substances or abstaining, and differences in susceptibility to social influences.