Associations Between Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Negative Consequences Among Black and White College Men and Women

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective:The gender gap in alcohol use has been narrowing among young adults, while race differences in alcohol problems change throughout the life course, with Whites experiencing more problems before middle adulthood and Blacks experiencing more after. Yet, there is a paucity of research on the intricate relationship among gender, race, alcohol use, and alcohol problems in emerging adults. The present study addressed this gap in the literature. Method: The sample included White (n = 14,772) and Black (n = 458) college students from multiple colleges across the United States (59% female; 51% freshmen; M age = 20 years). Results: With alcohol use levels adjusted for, women were more likely to report consequences related to damage to self and dependencelike symptoms than men. There were no signifi cant race differences in either the type or the number of alcohol problems. Further, there was no Race × Alcohol Use interaction in relation to alcohol problems. We found a statistically signifi cant interaction between gender and alcohol use in predicting alcohol problems, suggesting that, at higher levels of drinking, the risk for women to experience alcohol problems was signifi cantly greater than that for men. Conclusions: The reverse race gap in alcohol use and problems may not surface until young adulthood or may not be relevant for those who attend college. College interventions should help both Black and White students reduce problems associated with drinking and focus on limiting harm among female students. (J.

Exploring Heavy Drinking Patterns Among Black and White Young Adults

“…Individual consequences can occur in various domains, including physical (e.g., withdrawal, blacking out), interpersonal (e.g., fi ghts, avoidance by family), and social roles (e.g., missing work or school; White and Labouvie, 1989), and are only moderately correlated with drinking amounts (Larimer et al, 2004;Turner et al, 2000). Research on college populations has shown that Blacks incur fewer or the same alcohol-related consequences as Whites (e.g., Beckett et al, 2006;Clarke et al, 2013;Presley, 1996); however, it is unclear if this pattern is generalizable to noncollege-attending youth.…”

Interaction between the ADH1B*3 allele and drinking motives on alcohol use among Black college students

“…Despite lower rates of alcohol use among Black relative to non-Black students, 1–3 Black students experience comparable levels of negative drinking consequences 4,5 and are at risk for escalations in consequences during the transition to adulthood. 6,7 College drinking interventions have often targeted alcohol-related cognitions through personalized feedback on reasons for drinking 48 or positive/negative alcohol expectancies, 49,50 exploration of expectancy effects on drinking, 51 and alcohol expectancy challenges.…”

“…1,3 Despite such lower rates of alcohol consumption, Black college students report similar levels of negative drinking consequences as their non-Black college peers. 4,5 Further, Blacks’ experience of negative drinking consequences rises rapidly across young adulthood such that Black adults report significantly more negative drinking consequences than White adults at equivalent levels of alcohol consumption. 6,7 Such apparent racial differences suggest unique risk and protective factors for alcohol consumption within the Black population.…”

The association between protective behavioral strategies and alcohol-related problems: An examination of race and gender differences among college drinkers

“…By using this weighting method, we slightly increased the influence of participants from smaller studies and slightly decreased the influence of participants from larger studies on our estimates, although larger studies overall maintained relatively greater influence. This type of weighting system has been used in previous studies (e.g., Clarke, Kim, White, Jiao, & Mun, 2013). 1 Note that the weighting in the current study adjusts for disproportionate sample sizes across studies but not for disproportional racial sample sizes within studies.…”