title: A structural model of the substance use pathways among minority youth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the substance use pathways of minority adolescents with a structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the social ecological model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seven hundred ninety adolescents completed the baseline survey questionnaire for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's Mentoring and Family Strengthening Initiative. The exogenous variables were family supervision, family involvement, and social support, whereas self-control, school connectedness, and substance use served as the endogenous variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The following significant direct effects were found: family involvement to self-control; self-control and social support to school connectedness; school connectedness to substance use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide empirical evidence that family protective factors can significantly influence adolescents' substance use and should be adopted into substance use prevention interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. mqw@umd.edu
authors.forename: Min Qi
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Resa F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Matthew
authors.forename: Nikki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bellamy
authors.forename: Syretta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: James
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012919:Social Behavior; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D014481:United States