Date of Award

8-2006

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Dr. Rachel Whaley

Second Advisor

Dr. Greg Howard

Third Advisor

Dr. David Hartmann

Keywords

drug use; social disorganization theory

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

There have been many anecdotal accounts describing the characteristics of individuals involved in methamphetamine use, trafficking and production. However, prior to the current study there was yet to be a macro-level analysis of methamphetamine use. The extant macro-level literature on drug use has suggested that areas with high levels of social disorganization experience high rates of drug use. It was expected that school-districts with low SES and high rates of ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability and family disruption will experience high rates of methamphetamine use. In addition, it was expected that rural school districts would show higher rates than urban and suburban school districts. The analysis also controlled for overall substance use, as well as regional and population variables. Social disorganization hypotheses were partially supported as low economic status and residential instability are associated with methamphetamine use. Further, school districts in the southwest region of Michigan were significantly more likely to have a higher percentage of methamphetamine users. Overall, while the characteristics of school districts were able to explain some of the variation in methamphetamine use, most of the variation is left unexplained.

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