Parenting Behaviors, Neighborhood Quality, and Substance Use in 9th and 10th Grade Latino Males

Guided by family resilience perspectives, we used self-report questionnaire data from 379 Latino male 9th and 10th graders in California and North Carolina. We examined how reports of mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviors and neighborhood quality were associated with (a) the probability of non-substance use among participants in the last 6 months (n = 256 non-use, n = 123 use) and (b) the count of substance use events for those who used in the last 6 months (n = 123). Results indicated that fathers’ psychological control and neighborhood quality appeared to increase the probability of non-substance use, whereas mothers’ psychological control appeared to decrease the probability of non-substance use. For participants reporting substance use events (n = 123), results showed fathers’ monitoring, fathers’ psychological control (only with high neighborhood quality), and mothers’ punitiveness (particularly with low neighborhood quality) held potential to protect against more substance use events. Fathers’ punitiveness (particularly with high neighborhood quality), mothers’ psychological control (only in low neighborhood quality), and greater socioeconomic status increased the vulnerability to more substance use events for adolescent males with substance use in the past 6 months. These results underscore the need for future research regarding specific culturally-relevant mothers’ and fathers’ parental control behaviors within neighborhood contexts that protect Latino male 9th and 10th graders against substance use.