The Role of Drinking Beliefs to Explain Ethnic Variation in Drinking Practices Among U.S. College Students

Abstract

This study, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, examines psychosocial mediators to explain discrepancies in past-30-day drinking between African American and White college student drinkers in the United States. Between 2008 and 2010, 5,845 college drinkers completed an online survey about their alcohol use. Using latent variable structural equations modeling, we investigated the relationships between ethnicity, drinking beliefs, and students’ past 30-day alcohol use. Drinking beliefs—i.e., positive expectancies, perceived norms, and disapproval of alcohol use—fully mediated the relationship between ethnicity and drinking behaviors. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords :

• ethnicity
• college students
• alcohol use
• drinking beliefs
• African American

THE AUTHORS

Tamar M. J. Antin, Dr.P.H., M.A.A., is a Research Scientist at the Prevention Research Center. She received her master's in applied anthropology from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, and doctoral degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, CA. Her research interests include understanding how overlapping stigmas influence health and behavior; the social meanings of tobacco, alcohol, and food for diverse groups of young adults; and body image particularly among young women who experience weight stigma.

Sharon Lipperman-Kreda, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Berkeley, CA. She received her Ph.D. in criminology and was an NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) postdoctoral fellow at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, and the Prevention Research Center. Her research interests include youth tobacco, alcohol, and drug use and the influences of policies, enforcement, and other environmental and context-related factors on these behaviors.

Mallie J. Paschall, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist in the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, CA. Dr. Paschall has 20 years of experience conducting research on the epidemiology, etiology, and prevention of substance use and violence among adolescents and young adults. Dr. Paschall is currently directing a 24-city study in California to examine effects of local alcohol policies and enforcement on excessive alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among adolescents and young adults. He is also a coinvestigator on the 14-campus Safer California Universities study to evaluate similar environmental prevention strategies to reduce alcohol-related problems among college students.

Miesha Marzell, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Prevention Research Center, in collaboration with the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in biobehavioral health from Penn State in 2011. Her research interests include the prevention of alcohol- and drug- related problems among young adults; developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions aimed at reducing substance abuse among high-risk athletic populations; and examining alcohol and drug policies related to both of these populations.

Robynn Battle, Ed.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Research Scientist at the Prevention Research Center. Her research interest includes evaluation research and health and educational disparities. She is also adjunct faculty with Holy Names University, Oakland, CA, Education Department's Master of Education program, teaching courses in educational evaluation and Research Tools.