Solitary Drinking, Social Isolation, and Escape Drinking Motives as Predictors of High Quantity Drinking, Among Anglo, African American and Mexican American Males

Abstract

This paper addresses the phenomenon of 'solitary drinking', considering whether Anglo, African American and Mexican American male regular drinkers differ in the propensity to drink in solitary contexts and whether such differences may help to explain observed ethnic variation in patterns of heavy drinking. Further, the paper considers whether apparent relationships between solitary drinking and drinking patterns are explained by individual personality characteristics such as social isolation and/or by endorsement of 'escape drinking' motives. Data were analysed from a random community sample of 481 adult male regular drinkers in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Contingency table and logistic regression analyses indicated that initially observed ethnic differences in high quantity and high maximum drinking were largely eliminated by controls for education, escape motives and solitary drinking. Ethnic variation in the role of solitary drinking was suggested as well, with solitary drinking more strongly related to high quantity consumption, in particular, among African Americans than among Mexican Americans. The nature of the observed interactions suggests that fundamental differences between Anglos and African Americans in the roles of solitary drinking and escape drinking motives may underlie seemingly similar frequent, lower quantity drinking patterns in these groups that appear more frequently than among Mexican American males.

The 2008–2009 Recession and Alcohol Outcomes: Differential Exposure and Vulnerability for Black and Latino Populations

“…To this point, some studies have found that Blacks are more likely than Whites to drink to cope, which predicts higher risk of alcohol problems even controlling for amount consumed, especially when perceived stress is high (Abbey et al, 1993;Cooper et al, 1992Cooper et al, , 2008. In addition, Black men may be more likely than White men to drink alone, which is associated with heavy episodic drinking and alcohol problems (Neff, 1997). It is also possible that Blacks (and perhaps especially men) who remain employed during an economic recession strategically inhibit their drinking to prevent job loss (Catalano et al, 1993), which could magnify the discrepancy in outcomes between loss and no-loss groups.…”

Perceived Racial Discrimination and Negative-Mood–Related Drinking Among African American College Students

“…Few studies, however, have examined nonsocial drinking among African Americans. Notably, evidence from a community sample showed that African American men were more likely to engage in nonsocial drinking than European American men and that doing so was more strongly associated with drinking quantity among the former group (Neff, 1997). It remains unknown, however, whether discrimination increases African Americans' general propensity for nonsocial drinking, or specifically in response to negative moods.…”

Male solitary drinking and hazardous alcohol use in nine countries of the former Soviet Union

“…It is possible that these country-wise differences might be related to differences in the drinking patterns and behaviours across these countries (Pomerleau et al, 2005) such as how much alcohol is drunk, when and where it is consumed or the circumstances associated with its consumption. Alternatively, previous research has suggested that other factors such as ethnicity (Neff, 1997) and religion (San José et al, 1999) are linked to differences in solitary drinking and it is possible that these or other factors might have also been important across our study countries.…”

“…First, the use of a filter question in the HITT survey meant that we were not able to examine solitary drinking among those who consume alcohol infrequently. This means that our findings are not representative of all male drinkers in these countries, although previous research has also focused on this phenomenon solely among male regular drinkers (Neff, 1997). Second, all the information was self-reported and we had no way of verifying the reports of solitary drinking.…”

“…A study among college students also found that solitary heavy drinkers were more likely to have alcohol problems than social heavy drinkers (Gonzalez et al, 2009). Other studies have indicated that solitary drinking might be linked to higher alcohol consumption (Martin and Casswell, 1987), especially among some (e.g., ethnic) groups (Neff, 1997).…”