Project Summary
Marijuana use among youth has been increasing, with considerably enlarged disparities across
racial/ethnic groups. Racial minorities like African American (AA) adolescents are more likely to report
marijuana use than their White peers. Marijuana use during adolescence can harm brain development and
lead to other substance abuse and adverse health outcomes. In order to identify potential targets for
interventions to reduce health disparities, there is a critical need to distinguish risk and protective factors for
marijuana use that are specific to race and ethnicity. With a shifting legal environment for marijuana use in the
United States and more adults supporting marijuana legalization, it is estimated that 8.2% of mothers and 9.6%
of fathers living with adolescent offspring reported past-year marijuana use. The family environment is a major
driver of youth development, and racial and ethnic families often experience greater exposure to systemic
oppression (e.g., institutional and interpersonal racism, bias, and discrimination) and higher social inequality
than their White peers, resulting in acute and chronic stress. Therefore, we hypothesize that parental
marijuana use independently predicts offspring marijuana and other substance use, and intergenerational
effects of marijuana use may be stronger among racial and ethnic families, especially among AA families. The
overarching goal of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study is to assess racial disparities in
relationships between parental marijuana use and youth substance use. In Aim 1, we will leverage a
longitudinally national survey with 5 waves of parent and offspring data (n≈3,272) to examine the
intergenerational association between G1 marijuana use and subsequent G2 marijuana, vaping, tobacco, and
other illicit drug use across distinct racial/ethnic groups (AAs, H/Ls vs. non-Hispanic Whites). In Aim 2, we will
assess moderation and mediation effects from marijuana legalization status and other determinants (e.g.,
discrimination and psychological distress) across racial/ethnic groups. In Aim 3, we will conduct semi-
structured interviews of parent marijuana users and their offspring (n≈96 each) to qualitatively examine the
intersections of parent influences and policy change on youth substance use. Analyses of intergenerational
and longitudinal surveys and semi-structured interviews will be fully integrated to complement each other and
provide more robust findings. This study is innovative in its focus on assessing racial disparities in the
intergenerational transmission of marijuana use in AAs and H/Ls, two NIH-designated health disparity
populations. This study is also timely in responding to the rapidly shifting policy environment, rising marijuana
use among youth and adults, and growing disparities by racial/ethnic group, with unknown etiology on the
intergenerational drug use by racial/ethnic groups. The findings will inform the development of a future R01 to
test tailored strategies to prevent youth marijuana and other substance use and reduce health disparities.
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