Intergroup relationships with people who use drugs: A personal network approach

Positive and meaningful intergroup contact between people who use drugs and those with the potential to provide positive social interactions has been identified as an important pathway to address the burden of drug use by reducing stigmatizing views and behaviors. Traditional approaches to intergroup contact typically rely on laboratory experiments or survey vignettes to examine the consequences of variation in contact conditions and relationships. Although seldom measured, contact occurs naturally through individuals' personal social networks. Here, we apply this latter approach to examine how the characteristics of drug use and social roles are associated with positive and meaningful intergroup contact in daily life. We leverage unique data from a state representative sample of Indiana residents aged 18 or older (n = 926) that completed a personal network interview and separately reported people they know who have a drug use problem. We first identified the respondents who nominated a person who uses drugs as a member of their core personal network and then evaluated the relationship, disease, and individual characteristics that were associated with that person's inclusion in the personal network. We find that primary relationships (e.g., having a spouse or child who uses drugs) are associated with meaningful contact with people who use drugs but that intense manifestations of disease characteristics (severe or problematic, danger to self) can limit the likelihood of contact. These findings demonstrate how the nature of intergroup contact can shape the types of relationships that have been shown to help reduce stigmatizing attitudes and the behavioral barriers to recovery, such as social isolation. Thus, core networks present a valuable approach to defining the factors that likely contribute to effective intergroup contact.