A Cross-Classified Hierarchical Linear Model of School Belonging and Marijuana Use Among Black Youth

Black youth have experienced notable increases in marijuana use, which has resulted in disproportionate rates of arrests and severe health diagnoses. Efforts to address these rising trends point to structural factors impacting the quality of Black youths' daily environments. Guided by the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST), we examine the complexity of school belonging as a protective factor given its known relationship to youth substance use, while addressing structural indicators associated with school and neighborhood quality.

Using data from the Arizona Youth Survey (AYS) 2022, we employed cross-classified hierarchical linear modeling (CCHLM) to examine the association between school belonging and lifetime and past 30-d use among 6120 Black youth (M_age = 14.41).

Findings demonstrated that school belonging was associated with decreased lifetime marijuana use and past 30-d use. For lifetime marijuana use, there were significant cross-level interactions between teacher education, school discipline gap, neighborhood racial composition, and neighborhood educational attainment. For past 30-d use, there were significant cross-level interactions for teacher education, neighborhood racial composition, and neighborhood educational attainment.

This study highlights the importance of investigating and investing in Black youths' school and neighborhood contexts, and the need for supporting school belonging to mitigate marijuana use. Evidence from this study demonstrates the critical influence of indicators of schools and neighborhoods when understanding mechanisms for addressing marijuana use among Black youth.