Association of Familial Incarceration and Adolescent Substance Use across the Area Deprivation
Index

Natasha De Silva MPH(c); Xiao Zhang MPH(c); Ever Cardenas BS; Maria Rivera-Guevara
MPH; Christopher Rogers PhD, MPH; Myriam Forster PhD, MPH

Background: Adolescent substance use increases vulnerability for later life substance use (SU),
misuse, and dependence. Evidence suggests that familial incarceration (FI) can increase risk for
adolescent SU, yet almost no research has examined the role of community-level context in this
relationship.
 
Objectives: We assessed the association of FI and SU across the Area Deprivation Index (ADI),
a socioeconomic ranking of neighborhoods.
 
Methods: Data are diverse high-school students survey responses (N=2,360), geocoded and
linked to neighborhoods, enrolled in the SHARE project, a multi-school/state study focused on
adolescent health and development outcomes. GLMs tested hypothesized associations
between FI and SU adjusting for parent/caregiver alcohol and drug use, sex, ethnicity, age and
state and whether the FI-SU relationship varied across ADI.

Results: Over one-third (34%) of students had at least one incarcerated family member and
31% reported SU. Compared to youth with no FI, students experiencing FI had higher odds of
alcohol (OR: 2.67 95% CI: 2.0, 2.3.57), nicotine (OR: 2.21 95% CI: 1.47, 3.33) and cannabis
use (OR: 3.57 95% CI: 2.58, 4.94). ADI moderated this association; students with history of FI
residing in high disadvantaged neighborhoods had significantly higher odds of alcohol use than
students with FI living in advantaged neighborhoods (p<0.05).
 
Conclusion: The importance of community-level factors in the FI-SU association, particularly
residing in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, need to be accounted for in
research. Community level stressors can exacerbate the effect of family risk factors for SU and
should be addressed in the design of prevention-intervention programs for at-risk youth.