“What’s in a game?” Acculturation and drinking game behaviors among Asian American young adults.

Abstract

Research on acculturation and drinking behaviors among Asian American young adults has yielded null and mixed findings. Moreover, very little is known regarding the link between acculturation and context-specific risky drinking activities, such as drinking games participation, in this population. Drinking games have been linked with a number of negative drinking outcomes; however, some games pose more risk than others. In the current article, we present a conceptual framework to delineate mechanisms that may underlie Asian American young adults' risk for participating in context-specific risky drinking activities and experiencing negative drinking consequences. We use a bidimensional approach to examine how acculturation might be directly or indirectly associated with negative drinking game consequences in a sample of Asian American young adults (N ϭ 122; M age ϭ 22.1). Participants were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk and completed an anonymous online survey. Controlling for age, gender, college student status (i.e., whether participants were currently enrolled in college), and typical alcohol use on nondrinking game occasions, lower levels of acculturation (i.e., low U.S./high heritage cultural orientations) were indirectly related to elevated levels of negative drinking game consequences through their association with increased frequency of participation in different types of drinking games, namely consumption and dice games. Given the null and mixed findings reported in the acculturation and alcohol use literature, careful attention to indirect effects could further researchers' understanding of the specific ways in which acculturation may increase Asian American young adults' risk for participating in risky drinking practices and experiencing negative drinking consequences.

Acculturation and alcohol use among Asian Americans: A meta-analytic review.

“…Exactly how acculturation is linked to alcohol use remains unclear. Consistent with the immigrant paradox (also known as the healthy immigrant effect) regarding a variety of physical and mental health outcomes (Abraído-Lanza, Chao, & Flórez, 2005; Alegria et al, 2008; Allen, 2005; Bacio, Mays, & Lau, 2013; CIHI, 2002; Prado et al, 2009; Vang, Sigouin, Flenon, & Gagnon, 2016), higher levels of acculturation are associated with earlier onset of alcohol use, and greater consumption, risky drinking practices, and drinking-related problems (e.g., Akutsu, Sue, Zane, & Nakamura, 1989; Schwartz et al, 2011; Sue, Zane, & Ito, 1979; Zamboanga et al, 2016). Researchers have argued that the process of maintaining mainstream American cultural orientation can lend itself to stressful events or disadvantaged social statuses (Berry, 1997) and that acculturation serves as a proxy for ethnocultural stress variables (Abraído-Lanza, Armbrister, Flórez, & Aguirre, 2006).…”

“…Additionally, there was statistically significant between-study variability, Q (29) = 875.17, I 2 = 96.69, p < .001. Eight study samples yielded effect sizes linking acculturation to drinking-related problems (e.g., Bujarski et al, 2015; Iwamoto et al, 2012; Pedersen, Hsu, Neighbors, Lee, & Larimer, 2013; Zamboanga et al, 2016). Although the mean correlation between acculturation and drinking-related problems was statistically nonsignificant ( r = .06, 95% CI [−.05 to .16], z = 1.06, p = .29), studies differed in the effect size estimates Q (7) = 23.26, I 2 = 69.91, p < .005.…”

Religiousness and acculturation as moderators of the association linking acculturative stress to levels of hazardous alcohol use in college students.

“…In the current study, heritage/host-culture congruence was protective against hazardous drinking as greater heritage cultural orientation corresponded to lower hazardous use through lower positive expectancies when U.S. cultural orientation was high. Previous findings suggested that higher heritage relative to lower U.S. cultural orientation may exhibit risk effects (e.g., Pedersen et al, 2013; Schwartz & Zamboanga, 2008; Zamboanga, Audley, et al, 2016), whereas elevated levels of both heritage and U.S. cultural orientation may be protective (Des Rosiers et al, 2013; Schwartz & Zamboanga, 2008). Incongruence between heritage and U.S. cultural orientations may reflect the challenges facing many immigrant students.…”

Ethnocultural diversity in alcohol use and misuse.

“…One study by Wegner, Roy, DaCova, and Gorman (2019) compared ethnic groups and examined undergraduate men’s experiences with playing drinking games, a risky drinking practice (see Zamboanga et al, 2014). This is one of few studies that considers ethnocultural variations in high-risk drinking practices (Paves, Pedersen, Hummer, & LaBrie, 2012; Perrotte, Zamboanga, Lui, & Piña-Watson, 2018; Zamboanga et al, 2016; Zamboanga et al, 2015). Findings suggest future directions to better contextualize these similarities and differences by examining community and social−environmental factors.…”

“…Specifically, several studies focus on high-risk and/or understudied populations. Asian Americans continue to remain underrepresented in alcohol research (Cook, Mulia, & Karriker-Jaffe, 2012; Iwamoto, Kaya, Grivel, & Clinton, 2016; Zamboanga et al, 2016). Iwamoto, Le, Brady, and Kaya (2019) examined demographic and psychological variables as correlates of alcohol use patterns among pan-Asian Americans.…”