The Grass is Always Greener: Explaining Rural and Urban Differences in Marijuana Use

Abstract

This paper investigates residential differences in self-reported marijuana use among adolescents and young adults in a national sample. Data from the first five waves of the National Youth Survey are examined using a pooled time-series cross-sectional research design. Based on these data, significant residential differences in self-reported marijuana use are found. Specifically, rural youths report lower levels of marijuana use relative to their non-rural counterparts (i.e., suburban or urban residents). Hypotheses from determinist, compositional and subcultural explanations of rural-urban behavioral differences are discussed and tested empirically. While variables from each theoretical model explain some variance in marijuana use, only variables from subcultural theory can fully account for differences in the marijuana smoking behavior patterns of rural and non-rural residents.