The Effect of Social Support on Problem Substance Use within Black Homeless Youth

Homeless youth are an evasive population which can make it difficult to address matters such as problematic substance use. Along with being a hidden population, homelessness is already stigmatized, which can decrease the social support that these youths may receive. On the streets, homeless youth can fall into a culture where substance use and misuse are normalized. The purpose of this study was to identify whether the presence of social support networks has an effect on problematic substance use within Black homeless youth. Using binary logistic regression, this study tests if Black homeless youth have a lower risk of problem substance use predicted by the presence of social support networks. That is, “Does having access to social support network(s) effect a homeless youth’s risk of problem substance use?” and “Are certain types of social support networks more influential on problematic substance use?