For Black adolescents, spending time in activity spaces perceived as violent/racist correlates with reported marijuana use that day.

For Black adolescents, perceived social support in daily activity spaces indirectly relates to marijuana use via momentary negative emotions.

Negative momentary emotions explain the correlation between adolescents' exposure to violent activity spaces and reported marijuana use.

Research examining the role of place in Black adolescents’ health behaviors typically examines neighborhoods, with little attention paid to micro geographies such as activity spaces. Understanding experiences in activity spaces may be especially important for Black adolescents living in neighborhoods traditionally characterized as disadvantaged. The SPIN project recruited 75 Black adolescents living in a single neighborhood to complete ecological momentary assessments (EMA) about the activity spaces they encountered over a month. Perceptions of violence and social support in activity spaces in a day are related to marijuana use during the day, relationships partially explained by negative momentary emotions.

Activity space

EMA

Negative emotion

Marijuana use

Black adolescents

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