IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v72y2011i9p1447-1453.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental stressors, low well-being, smoking, and alcohol use among South African adolescents

Author

Listed:
  • Brook, David W.
  • Rubenstone, Elizabeth
  • Zhang, Chenshu
  • Morojele, Neo K.
  • Brook, Judith S.

Abstract

This is the first study to examine the pathways from environmental stressors to substance use among a sample of South African adolescents (N = 2195). The study objective was to assess how environmental stressors might affect cigarette smoking and alcohol use among South African adolescents, and to focus on one mechanism, low well-being, which might mediate this association. Participants consisted of 2195 Black, mixed ancestry ("Colored"), Indian, and White youth, aged 12-17 years old (mean age = 14.6; SD = 1.8), recruited via a multi-stage stratified sampling procedure in Durban, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Data were collected via individual in-person structured interviews, administered by trained interviewers in the participant's preferred language. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the interrelationships of environmental stressors (violent victimisation, legal and illegal drug availability) and low well-being (depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, health problems) with respect to adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol use. The results supported our hypotheses: Environmental stressors were related to low well-being which, in turn, was linked to both adolescent smoking and alcohol use. There were also direct pathways from environmental stressors to both adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Smoking and alcohol use were significantly correlated. The findings suggest that environmental stressors may be associated with diminished psychological and physical well-being, as well as smoking and alcohol use, among South African adolescents. Longitudinal research is warranted to further understand the interrelationship of environmental stressors, low well-being, and adolescent substance use, so that these issues may be addressed by South African programmes and policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Brook, David W. & Rubenstone, Elizabeth & Zhang, Chenshu & Morojele, Neo K. & Brook, Judith S., 2011. "Environmental stressors, low well-being, smoking, and alcohol use among South African adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(9), pages 1447-1453, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:72:y:2011:i:9:p:1447-1453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(11)00149-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaminer, Debra & Grimsrud, Anna & Myer, Landon & Stein, Dan J. & Williams, David R., 2008. "Risk for post-traumatic stress disorder associated with different forms of interpersonal violence in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(10), pages 1589-1595, November.
    2. Williams, David R. & Gonzalez, Hector M. & Williams, Stacey & Mohammed, Selina A. & Moomal, Hashim & Stein, Dan J., 2008. "Perceived discrimination, race and health in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 441-452, August.
    3. Bengt Muthén & David Kaplan & Michael Hollis, 1987. "On structural equation modeling with data that are not missing completely at random," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 431-462, September.
    4. Myer, Landon & Stein, Dan J. & Grimsrud, Anna & Seedat, Soraya & Williams, David R., 2008. "Social determinants of psychological distress in a nationally-representative sample of South African adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1828-1840, April.
    5. Kalichman, Seth C. & Simbayi, Leickness C. & Kagee, Ashraf & Toefy, Yoesrie & Jooste, Sean & Cain, Demetria & Cherry, Chauncey, 2006. "Associations of poverty, substance use, and HIV transmission risk behaviors in three South African communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1641-1649, April.
    6. Read, Jen'nan Ghazal & Gorman, Bridget K., 2006. "Gender inequalities in US adult health: The interplay of race and ethnicity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1045-1065, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steven Andrew Culpepper & Herman Aguinis & Justin L. Kern & Roger Millsap, 2019. "High-Stakes Testing Case Study: A Latent Variable Approach for Assessing Measurement and Prediction Invariance," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 84(1), pages 285-309, March.
    2. Sem J. Duijndam & W. J. Wouter Botzen & Liselotte C. Hagedoorn & Philip Bubeck & Toon Haer & My Pham & Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts, 2023. "Drivers of migration intentions in coastal Vietnam under increased flood risk from sea level rise," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Hanrriette Carrasco-Venturelli & Javier Cachón-Zagalaz & Amador J. Lara-Sánchez & José Luis Ubago-Jiménez, 2024. "Validation and Adaptation of Questionnaires on Interest, Effort, Progression and Learning Support in Chilean Adolescents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Laura Rossouw, 2015. "Poor Health Reporting: Do Poor South Africans Underestimate Their Health Needs?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-027, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Zahodne, Laura B. & Sharifian, Neika & Kraal, A. Zarina & Morris, Emily P. & Sol, Ketlyne & Zaheed, Afsara B. & Meister, Lindsey & Mayeux, Richard & Schupf, Nicole & Manly, Jennifer J. & Brickman, Ada, 2023. "Longitudinal associations between racial discrimination and hippocampal and white matter hyperintensity volumes among older Black adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    6. Justina GineikienÄ—, 2013. "Consumer Nostalgia Literature Review And An Alternative Measurement Perspective," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 4(2).
    7. Achyuta Adhvaryu & James Fenske & Anant Nyshadham, 2014. "Early Life Circumstance and Mental Health in Ghana," CSAE Working Paper Series 2014-03, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    8. Ahmed Mohammad Al‐Smadi & Loai Issa Tawalbeh & Omar Salem Gammoh & Ala Fawzi Ashour & Ali Alshraifeen & Yazeed Mohammed Gougazeh, 2017. "Anxiety, stress, and quality of life among Iraqi refugees in Jordan: A cross sectional survey," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 100-104, March.
    9. Achyuta Adhvaryu & James Fenske & Anant Nyshadham, 2019. "Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1516-1549.
    10. Hlengiwe P Madlala & Landon Myer & Thokozile R Malaba & Marie-Louise Newell, 2020. "Neurodevelopment of HIV-exposed uninfected children in Cape Town, South Africa," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Eldad Davidov & Stefan Thörner & Peter Schmidt & Stefanie Gosen & Carina Wolf, 2011. "Level and change of group-focused enmity in Germany: unconditional and conditional latent growth curve models with four panel waves," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 95(4), pages 481-500, December.
    12. Halleröd, Björn & Gustafsson, Jan-Eric, 2011. "A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between changes in socio-economic status and changes in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 116-123, January.
    13. Erik Meijer & Arie Kapteyn & Tatiana Andreyeva, 2008. "Health Indexes and Retirement Modeling in International Comparisons," Working Papers 614, RAND Corporation.
    14. Yun-Hsuan Wu & Kellee White & Nancy L Fleischer & Bo Cai & Shing-Chia Chen & Spencer Moore, 2018. "Network-based and cohesion-based social capital and variations in depressive symptoms among Taiwanese adults," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(8), pages 726-736, December.
    15. Jost Reinecke & Cornelia Weins, 2013. "The development of delinquency during adolescence: a comparison of missing data techniques," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 3319-3334, October.
    16. Nancy Krieger & Pamela D Waterman & Anna Kosheleva & Jarvis T Chen & Dana R Carney & Kevin W Smith & Gary G Bennett & David R Williams & Elmer Freeman & Beverley Russell & Gisele Thornhill & Kristin M, 2011. "Exposing Racial Discrimination: Implicit & Explicit Measures–The My Body, My Story Study of 1005 US-Born Black & White Community Health Center Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-24, November.
    17. M Pilar Matud & Juan M Bethencourt & Ignacio Ibáñez, 2015. "Gender differences in psychological distress in Spain," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(6), pages 560-568, September.
    18. Pellowski, Jennifer A. & Barnett, Whitney & Kuo, Caroline C. & Koen, Nastassja & Zar, Heather J. & Stein, Dan J., 2017. "Investigating tangible and mental resources as predictors of perceived household food insecurity during pregnancy among women in a South African birth cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 76-84.
    19. Eleonora Trappolini & Cristina Giudici, 2021. "Gendering health differences between nonmigrants and migrants by duration of stay in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(7), pages 221-258.
    20. Supa Pengpid & Karl Peltzer, 2021. "Prevalence and correlates of psychological distress among a national population-based sample of adults in Solomon Islands," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(6), pages 687-695, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:72:y:2011:i:9:p:1447-1453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.