Alcohol Facts and Statistics National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

These ethnic group differences were identified in drinkers at the no/low level of heavy drinking, whereas alcohol problems were similar for all groups at the highest heavy-drinking level. Furthermore, research continues to show different trajectories of alcohol problem development across ethnic groups. Particularly, Blacks relative to Hispanics and other ethnic groups show a lower level of alcohol-related problems during adolescence and in their mid-twenties but a higher level by their mid-thirties (Muthen and Muthen 2000; Wagner et al. 2002). Other than these patterns of consumption, the volume of alcohol intake, defined as the total alcohol consumed over a time period, is linked to social and health harms. Most diseases (e.g., injury, some cancers, and liver cirrhosis) have a detrimental dose-response relationship with alcohol as risk increases with higher-volume alcohol consumption, whereas coronary heart disease and diabetes display a J- or U-shaped relationship (Howard et al. 2004; Rehm et al. 2010; Roerecke and Rehm 2012). The J and U shapes are characterized by both detrimental and beneficial (e.g., increased high-density lipoprotein “good cholesterol”) (Goldberg and Soleas 2001) effects of alcohol use, with higher risks for abstainers and heavy drinkers compared with light or moderate drinkers.

Beyond Acculturation: Understanding Bicultural Self-efficacy

The authors would like to acknowledge Carlos Estrada and Irma Beatriz Vega de Luna for their work in recruiting participants.

Cancers

Some ethnic groups have higher rates of alcohol consumption, putting them at greater risk of drinking harms. However, other ethnic minorities experience health harms from drinking that are disproportionate to their consumption. Differences in social and socioeconomic factors and biological differences related to alcohol metabolism also could contribute to alcohol’s varying effects across populations. It examines such social harms as driving under the influence and alcohol-attributed violence but primarily focuses on health harms like fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), liver diseases, and cancers.

1. The J and U shapes are characterized by both detrimental and beneficial (e.g., increased high-density lipoprotein “good cholesterol”) (Goldberg and Soleas 2001) effects of alcohol use, with higher risks for abstainers and heavy drinkers compared with light or moderate drinkers.
2. Epidemiological studies show that these high-risk patterns of drinking and drinking volume vary by U.S. ethnic group.
3. For Native American men, Beals et al. (2005) reported more help seeking from specialty alcohol or drug treatment providers relative to the U.S. population, but there were no differences for women.
4. Dawson (1993) reported that differences in beverage preferences between men (beer mostly) and women (wine and liquor) explain differences in alcohol consumption between genders.

Alcohol-Related Mortality Outcomes

Whites have greater odds than Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians for either a past-year or lifetime alcohol use disorder. Native Americans have greater odds than Whites for lifetime alcohol dependence but similar odds for lifetime alcohol abuse and past-year alcohol abuse and dependence. More specifically, Whites (13.8 percent) are more likely than Blacks (8.4 percent) and Hispanics (9.5 percent) to develop alcohol dependence in their lifetime (Hasin et al. 2007).

Binge and heavy drinking are high-risk consumption patterns that contribute to how to wean off prozac a variety of alcohol-related social and health problems (Naimi et al. 2003; Rehm et al. 2003). High-risk drinking contributes to the higher rates of alcohol-related problems for some ethnic groups (e.g., Native Americans), but the negative effects of alcohol for ethnic minorities often occur over and above the contribution of alcohol use. Most recently, Mulia et al. (2009) showed that Black and Hispanic adult drinkers are more likely than White drinkers to report alcohol dependence symptoms and social consequences from drinking.

There are limitations to using these general categories because ethnicity encompasses a combination of characteristics such as tribe, ancestry, national group, birthplace, and language, which could have distinct relationships to patterns of drinking and alcohol-related harms (Caetano 1986; Cheung 1993; Heath 1990– 1991). Nevertheless, studies that examine ethnicity and alcohol-attributed harms provide important information about public health and serve to identify high-risk groups in the population. This article shows that Native Americans, Hispanics, and Blacks are disproportionately affected by the adverse social and health harms from alcohol consumption.

Violence

Despite these limitations, the present study highlights that distinct communities of settlement can modify associations between specific acculturation orientations and substance use behavior. Bicultural self-efficacy is a novel construct in alcohol research and our findings suggest that this construct is relevant in alcohol research with Hispanic populations. However, our findings need to be replicated and more studies are needed with more diverse Hispanic samples (e.g., ages, nativity) and inclusion of other bicultural self-efficacy domains. Based on the interaction we found between acculturation and bicultural self-efficacy—future studies should continue to examine how other sociocultural processes may influence bicultural self-efficacy in relation to substance use behavior.