Self-esteem, cultural identification, and substance use among American Indian youth.

The literature on cultural identification and substance use among minority youth is unclear. It was anticipated that consideration of self-esteem as a potential mediator or moderator might help clarify some of the confusion. However, no moderating effects were found and mediating effects were limited to female high school students for marijuana. Consideration should be given to assessing other measures of cultural identification and subscales of self-esteem to confirm that these findings are robust.