The Role of Social Capital in African Americans' Attempts to Reduce and Quit Cocaine Use

Ann M. Cheney, Brenda M. Booth, Tyrone F. Borders, Geoffrey M. Curran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Research examining substance users' recovery has focused on individual-level outcomes while paying limited attention to the contexts within which individuals are embedded, and the social processes involved in recovery. Objectives: This paper examines factors underlying African American cocaine users' decisions to reduce or quit cocaine use and uses practice theory to understand how lifestyle changes and shifts in social networks facilitate access to the capital needed to change cocaine use patterns. Methods: The study, an in-depth analysis of substance-use life history interviews carried out from 2010 to 2012, included 51 currently not-in-treatment African American cocaine users in the Arkansas Mississippi Delta region. A blended inductive and deductive approach to data analysis was used to examine the socio-cultural and economic processes shaping cocaine use and recovery. Results: The majority of participants reported at least one lifetime attempt to reduce or quit cocaine use; motivations to reduce use or quit included desires to meet social role expectations, being tired of using, and incarceration. Abstinence-supporting networks, participation in conventional activities, and religious and spiritual practices afforded access to capital, facilitating cocaine use reduction and sobriety. Conclusions: Interventions designed to increase connection to and support from nondrug using family and friends with access to recovery capital (e.g., employment, faith community, and education) might be ideal methods to reduce substance use among minorities in low-income, resource-poor communities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)777-787
Number of pages11
JournalSubstance Use and Misuse
Volume51
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - May 11 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Taylor & Francis.

Keywords

  • African Americans
  • capital
  • cocaine use
  • recovery without treatment
  • rural/urban differences
  • social networks
  • southern United States

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Health(social science)
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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