Participants who felt that they did not look or act like members of their racial/ethnic group demonstrated increased odds of marijuana use. Young adults who feel marginalized by family members or friends may seek to find a way to belong and connect with other young adults and marijuana use may be a way to find belonging within a group. This parallels research, which suggests that the decision to engage in marijuana use comes from an internal need for emotional connection and friendship and as an opportunity to connect and create a sense of belonging . Other research has identified marijuana as a more acceptable substance viewed as superior and safer than other substances . Marijuana may be the substance of choice to build connection with others and combat feelings of intragroup marginalization. If marijuana use is perceived as a means for social connection, it may help to explain the findings between Factor 1 and cigar use. When controlling for demographic characteristics, participants who felt as though they did not look or act like members of their racial/ethnic group had decreased odds of cigar use. Cigars were the least frequently used product within the sample retained for analysis.National averages parallel this trend with current cigar use having lower prevalence than to cigarettes and marijuana for young adults .If marginalized young adults seek to connect with others via substance use, cigar use may not be the best mechanism by which to connect with others and therefore they may be less likely to use cigars. The combination of low rates of use and potential lack of opportunity to build social connection may help explain the decreased odds of cigar use. This finding is unexpected and further research is needed to better understand the relationship between intragroup marginalization and cigar use. Similarly, cigarette, e-cigarette, blunt use, pipp racking system and hookah use had lower rates compared to marijuana use. While unexpected, cigarette, e-cigarette, and blunt use were not associated with experiences of intragroup marginalization.This may be due in part to the lower rates of use.

It is worth noting that blunt use was examined independently, although it is often associated with marijuana use and in this sample most blunt users also reported concurrent marijuana use .Additionally, the use of these substances may be less tied to social use and therefore their use may not be linked to developing ways of belonging. Past research has differentiated between ‘social smoking’ and smoking alone . Studies have suggested that young adults not in college may be less likely to be social smokers and social smoking may not be prevalent across racial/ethnic groups .This study did not differentiate between social smoking and smoking alone and may be another important factor to better understand the role of intragroup marginalization and tobacco use. Intragroup marginalization was associated with higher hookah use; however, when controlling for race/ethnicity this association was no longer significant due to racial/ethnic differences. While hookah use has been noted as a means for socializing and is often smoked in a group setting , this may be population specific. Hookah use is common in Middle Eastern countries and has strong cultural underpinnings . Middle Eastern young adults experiencing intragroup marginalization may use hookah as a means to connect and fit in within their cultural group. Furthermore, African Americans have been found to have lower rates of use compared to other ethnic/racial groups . Additional research may be needed to further investigate differential impacts of intragroup marginalization on hookah use ethnic/racial group. Factor 1 captures the challenges young adults face when they feel they do not fit in with members of their ethnic/racial group. While Factor 1 focuses on difficulties in belonging and membership, Factor 2 centered on shared values and dreams. Feeling marginalized due to a lack of similar hopes and dreams was not associated with tobacco or marijuana use. This finding supports the theory that young adults use these substances as a means of building belonging and connection . While having dissimilar hopes and dreams may be stressful, it may not necessarily indicate one does have any connection to others.

Given these findings, the scale may be able to be further abbreviated by dropping Factor 2, particular when examining tobacco and marijuana use. Future research may be needed to further investigate impacts of Factor 2 on other health outcomes. Despite the strengths of this research, there are important limitations to note.This study focused on young adults in the San Francisco Bay Area, and findings may be not be generalizable to all young adults. However by using population-based sampling, we were able to obtain a representative sample, which past research has noted the difficulty in reaching urban young adults . This study also utilized a cross-sectional design, preventing any potential inference concerning causality. Tobacco and marijuana use were measured using self-report data and use was not biochemically verified. While past research has demonstrated the reliability and validity of self-reported smoking in anonymous surveys with young adults this validation has not extended to non-cigarette tobacco products;this may be a potential area for future research. This study examined intragroup marginalization among Mixed Race young adults; a population often overlooked in intragroup marginalization studies. Mixed Race participants were not required to identify which group served as the primary source of intragroup marginalization. However, it is possible that different cultural norms around tobacco and marijuana use could influence whether intragroup marginalization impacted behavior. Oyserman and colleagues have demonstrated the identity-based motivation of health behaviors, with racial/ ethnic minorities more likely to identify unhealthy behaviors with their group. Additional research may be needed with Mixed Race individuals to better understand how different groups may impact the relationships between intragroup marginalization and tobacco use. A final limitation is that we did not directly assess reasons or motivations for use. Future qualitative research is needed to explicitly examine motivations for use as a result of experiences of intragroup marginalization. This study provides the first quantitative examination of intragroup marginalization with tobacco and marijuana use. Results respond to recent calls to better understand motivations for young adult marijuana use , with findings demonstrating an association between intragroup marginalization and increased marijuana use.These findings are especially relevant given the changing climate regarding the legalization of marijuana, with California just recently voting to legalize marijuana . Results reaffirm existing arguments that drug policy must attend to the social and cultural contexts of use Additionally, findings respond to existing calls in the literature to better understand how culture impacts use . Past intervention research has highlighted the importance of attending to peer smoking behavior and norms, providing further support for the need to attend to social dynamics when addressing young adult tobacco and marijuana use . Additional research is needed to further investigate the relationship between intragroup marginalization and marijuana use, which can help in the tailoring and development of targeted health education programs.The period from middle school to high school is associated with important developmental changes that occur physically, socially and mentally . Initiation of alcohol and/or marijuana during this time period can significantly affect functioning, especially if youth initiate at a younger age. For example, AM use during this time period is associated with academic problems, poorer mental health, use of other illicit drugs in the future , and a higher likelihood of abuse or dependence in adulthood . Furthermore, given that the brain is still developing, adolescents can still have memory, attention, and reaction time deficits even after they stop using compared to youth who have never used AM . Studies in the United States examining trajectories of alcohol use during adolescence have shown a consistent pattern.

Initiation typically occurs in early adolescence , with drinking rates increasing steadily during mid- and late adolescence before peaking in early young adulthood . Marijuana use trajectories follow a similar pattern, albeit with a later average age of initiation . However, pipp vertical racks not all individuals follow this general pattern; thus research has focused on identifying distinct developmental trajectories of AM use. Most of these studies identify a group of persistent or high users, a declining group where use starts off heavy and gradually declines over time, an increasing group where use gradually escalates over time, and a moderate/infrequent group that uses occasionally over time . Persistent or high AM users typically have the worst outcomes . For example, youth in high marijuana use groups during high school also reported higher rates of both mental health and drug problems at age 21 ; membership in higher alcohol use groups in 6th grade was associated with greater use of other substances and violent behavior in 8th grade ; youth in the heaviest drinking trajectory group at age 18 had more problems with verbal memory and monitoring two years later ; and youth who initiated alcohol and cigarettes concurrently early on reported worse physical health, a higher likelihood of selling drugs and the highest rates of self-reported problems compared to groups that did not initiate use in early adolescence . Few studies have examined trajectories of alcohol and other drug use among diverse ethnic and racial samples across middle school and high school . However, the face of the United States is changing. During the next 15 years, Asian American, Hispanic American, African American, and Native American populations are expected to rapidly grow in size, with each of these cultures subsequently comprising a significant proportion of the nation . In addition, multi-racial Americans are the fastest growing population under age 18 . Research has shown that non-Whites often have worse health outcomes and more interpersonal problems and other negative outcomes from AOD use compared to Whites, even with less AOD use. To date, there are no studies that longitudinally address when these disparities may start; for example, whether we may see disparities in functioning due to AOD use begin as early as adolescence. It is imperative that we assess when disparities in functioning may begin to occur and in what domains so that clinicians and providers can better determine the best time and way to intervene. A small body of research has assessed racial/ethnic differences in AOD use; however, studies typically focus on one substance and do not address potential disparities in outcomes. Results indicate that Whites and Hispanics are more likely than Blacks and Asians to drink alcohol , smoke cigarettes , and use marijuana . Four recent studies have examined racial/ethnic differences in more than one substance across adolescence into adulthood . They all used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents and Adults to examine use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Although these studies examined use from adolescence to adulthood, they only had four waves of data that were spaced over a 14 year period. Setoh and colleagues examined differences between Whites and Hispanics; Keyes et al. compared Whites and Blacks; Chen and Jacobson compared Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians; and Evans-Polce et al. examined differences between Whites, Hispanics and Blacks. Three studies found that White youth had higher rates of AOD use initially and increased their use more rapidly over time than non-White youth; however, racial/ethnic differences lessened as youth aged indicating that non-White youth “caught up” in their 20’s and 30’s. Chen and Jacobson found that Hispanics had the highest rate of use for all substances at age 12, with Whites increasing the most rapidly, and peak levels of use for Blacks occurring at later ages. These studies have significantly advanced our knowledge in this area; however, several gaps need to be addressed. First, few longitudinal studies examine trajectories for more than one substance. Given that AM are the two substances initiated and used most frequently during adolescence, it is important to examine how trajectories of AM use during this time period may differentially affect outcomes. Second, none of these studies measure AM use with regular assessments during both middle school and high school. These are important developmental time periods to measure consistently. More regular assessments allow examination across critical transitions, including from age 11 to 14 when use rates increase dramatically , and from 14 to 17 when youth begin to gain more independence from parents and may have more opportunities to engage in risk behaviors . Third, studies tend to focus on differences between just a few racial/ethnic groups.