The Contribution of Africentric Values and Racial Identity to the Prediction of Drug Knowledge, Attitudes, and Use among African American Youth

This study investigated the relative contribution of cultural variables, in particular Africentric values and racial identity, to the prediction of drug use, drug knowledge, and drug attitudes in conjunction with individual, peer, and family domain variables. Data collected from 195 African American youth were used in this study. The results indicate that Africentric values were a significant, yet modest predictor of drug knowledge accounting for approximately 4% of the variance. Similarly, racial identity was a significant predictor of drug use and of drug attitudes accounting for approximately 2% and 8% of the variance, respectively. Also, gender, an individual domain variable, was a significant predictor of drug use, attitudes, and knowledge. Males reported more drug use, had attitudes more tolerant of drugs, and had less drug knowledge than females.