The Geography of Intergenerational Income Mobility and Substance Use Among Adolescents in a Large Statewide Survey

Background: A growing body of research has documented the role of economic shocks on working age adults substance use and deaths of despair. However, little research has investigated how economic opportunity might influence substance use among adolescents. Substance use by adolescents remains a persistent and troubling public health problem in the United States. Approximately 40% of 12th graders reported having used marijuana and 60% of 12th graders reported having used alcohol in their lifetime. Prior research indicates that adolescent substance use and early onset substance use (i.e., middle school years) places youth at heightened risk for substance use disorders in adulthood. Extant research has generally placed adolescent substance use in the context of individual and family systems. Objectives: The current study builds on this literature by examining the influence of county-level intergenerational economic mobility on adolescents’ self-reported substance use. Drawing on a large state-wide survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in Illinois and data on intergenerational economic mobility from Opportunity Insights to estimate the association between county-level intergenerational economic mobility and self-reported substance use among low- and higher-income adolescents. Results: We find that for low-income adolescents growing up in a higher intergenerational economic mobility county is associated with less substance use compared to their higher-income peers.