Ethnocultural diversity in alcohol use and misuse.

Abstract

Hazardous alcohol use is associated with deleterious health effects and social consequences, reduced work productivity, and increased medical and criminal justice expenditures. Research has consistently shown not only ethnic differences in prevalence rates of drinking behaviors and alcohol use disorders but also negative alcohol-related consequences and treatment-seeking patterns. Mainstream alcohol research has tended to focus on determinants and mechanisms that are common across ethnocultural groups; hence, there are tremendous opportunities to address issues that are especially pertinent to alcohol use and misuse in ethnic minority communities. Articles in this special issue present state-of-the-science investigations that address risk and protective factors associated with alcohol initiation, cognitions around alcohol use, high-risk behaviors, and drinking outcomes across segments of the U.S. population. Using generalizability, group differences, and multicultural approaches, as well as variable-and person-centered methods, these articles showcase a range of factors that warrant systematic examination. We encourage scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to consider culturally relevant factors and pathways across individual, social, and cultural levels and to develop a comprehensive understanding of alcohol use outcomes. These approaches have the translational potential to reduce ethnic disparities in alcohol use and misuse.

Ethnic/Racial Differences in Alcohol Use: Does Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Matter?

“…Research has shown Hispanic-White differences in the onset and maintenance of alcohol-related problems in the general United States population (Caetano & Clark, 1998;Grant et al, 2012;Ríos-Bedoya & Freile-Salinas, 2014). 1 Hispanic individuals report disproportionately higher rates of binge drinking; even when controlling for levels of assumption, they experience more negative alcohol-related consequences than their White counterparts (Lui & Zamboanga, 2019;Mulia et al, 2017). Furthermore, Hispanic and other ethnic/racial minority individuals experience greater disease burden of alcohol use disorders than their White peers because of greater exposure to social disadvantages (Mulia, 2009;Mulia et al, 2008).…”

“…Relatively few studies have emphasized the possible roles of malleable psychological factors in explaining these group differences, and consider distinctive effects of these factors in understudied population (Lui & Zamboanga, 2019). To advance alcohol research and address ethnic/racial disparities in drinking, there is a critical need to move beyond the "black box" model of investigation (Malone et al, 2012).…”

Contribution of infectious diseases to the selection of ADH1B and ALDH2 gene variants in Asian populations

“…According to the latest global status report on alcohol and health by the World Health Organization (WHO), the South‐East Asian Region (SEAR) has the second lowest Alcohol‐Per capita‐Consumption (APC) in the world (World Health Organization, 2018). Cultural and social factors are known to affect the drinking behaviors of Asian subjects, who show the lowest alcohol consumption levels compared to other ethnicities (Lui & Zamboanga, 2019). APC levels have been increasing in the SEAR, but the percentage of current drinkers did not significantly change, being constant at around 33% from 2000 to 2016 (World Health Organization, 2018).…”

Gendered racism, family and external shame, depressive symptoms, and alcohol use severity among Asian American men.

“…Given that depressive symptoms and alcohol use are strongly comorbid (Brière et al, 2014), AAM who report the former due to gendered racism may concurrently consume alcohol to cope and/or engage in other maladaptive risky behavior to regulate negative affect (Weiss et al, 2015). Alcohol-related problems are indeed an underrecognized (Cheng et al, 2018), ethnically heterogeneous (Kane et al, 2017;Lui & Zamboanga, 2018, 2019), yet increasing public health problem among Asian Americans (Iwamoto et al, 2012(Iwamoto et al, , 2016, with racial discrimination representing an epidemiological risk factor (Gee et al, 2007), and where AAM are vulnerable to substance abuse disorder (Cheng et al, 2012;Zamboanga et al, 2017).…”