Abstract: There are two compelling reasons for a social epidemiologic approach to the problem of drug abuse—one deals with etiology, the other with intervention strategies. With regard to etiology, it is clear that people become involved with drugs for a variety of individual reasons. At the same time, certain groups in society have higher or lower rates of drug abuse, over time, even as individuals come and go from these groups. 1 Newcomb M.D. Bentler P.M. Substance use and ethnicity: differential impact of peer and adult models. J Psychol. 1986; 120: 83-95 Crossref PubMed Scopus (124) Google Scholar , 2 Wallace J.M. Race differences in adolescent drug use: recent findings from national samples. Afr Am Res Perspect. 1994; 1: 31-35 Google Scholar , 3 Wallace Jr, J.M. The social ecology of addiction: race, risk and resilience. Pediatrics. 1999; 103: 1122-1127 PubMed Google Scholar , 4 Wallace Jr, J.M. Muroff J.R. Preventing substance abuse among African American children and youth: race differences in risk factor exposure and vulnerability. J Primary Prev. 2002; 22: 235-261 Crossref Scopus (205) Google Scholar , 5 Wallace Jr, J.M. Bachman J.G. O'Malley P.M. Johnston L.D. Schulenberg J.E. Cooper S.M. Tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use: racial and ethnic differences among U.S. high school seniors, 1976–2000. Public Health Rep. 2002; 117: S67-S75 PubMed Google Scholar , 6 Wallace Jr, J.M. Bachman J.G. O'Malley P.M. Schulenberg J.E. Cooper S.M. Johnston L.D. Gender and ethnic differences in smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use among American 8th, 10th and 12th grade students, 1976–2000. Addiction. 2003; 98: 225-234 Crossref PubMed Scopus (285) Google Scholar There appear to be factors in the social environment that encourage or discourage drug abuse and account for the inter- and intra-group variations. These factors do not determine which individuals will be affected but they do affect the likelihood of drug abuse within the group. Identifying these group factors is relevant not only to expand our understanding of drug abuse epidemiology, but also to influence our intervention strategies. Therefore, the social epidemiology of drug abuse necessarily involves an examination of the interaction of individual factors with familial, biological, and socioenvironmental factors, and the accumulation of effects of these interactions over time and across generations. There is a definite need to focus and extend drug abuse research to include an examination of two key areas: interactivity—individual susceptibility interacting with social and biological environments, both as main effects and as effect modifiers, and cumulative risk/history—the accumulation of risk and how these determinants differentially impose risk across time and generations.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 19
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