Changes in Alcohol Use Among First Year University Students in Mexico

Abstract

Background: Alcohol use and misuse is widespread among university students in many countries. Specific cultural factors may impact alcohol use after entering university. Objective: This paper considers changes in alcohol use among first year university students in Mexico. Methods: A qualitative study using ethnographic interviews with 57 female and 60 male student drinkers in Mexico City from March to June 2011. Each interview was evaluated by a set of thematic codes developed inductively from the interviews. Findings from excessive, heavy, regular, occasional drinkers, abstainers, and non-drinkers were analyzed to explore whether or not linkages existed between and/or among particular themes. Results: Students reported factors associated with changes in role and status, friendships, and increased autonomy as reasons for increasing or decreasing their alcohol use after entering university. Conclusions/Importance: Understanding the influence of Mexican cultural norms on alcohol use among Mexican and Mexican Americans can be helpful in informing studies and preventive efforts among both Mexican and Mexican American young people.

Keywords :

• alcohol
• Mexico
• first year university students
• changes in drinking
• qualitative methods

THE AUTHORS

Lee Strunin, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Her research focuses on identifying and comparing alcohol-related risk and protective factors and behaviors among young people from different racial and/or ethnic backgrounds. She has conducted studies of alcohol use among Black, White, and Hispanic young people in the United States, young people in Italy and in Mexico.

Alejandro Díaz Martínez, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico Medical School (UNAM). He has conducted studies on the pharmacotherapy of depression and schizophrenia as well as examining prevalence rates and correlates of drinking problems among UNAM students in Mexico City.

L. Rosa Díaz Martínez, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UNAM Medical School and a clinical researcher at the Mexico National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico City. She has conducted studies on the psychosocial rehabilitation of schizophrenic patients, on the extent of alcohol and mental health problems in rural communities in central Mexico and was co-investigator on a study examining drinking problems and the effectiveness of brief interventions among UNAM students in Mexico City.

Seth Kuranz, MPH, is a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology, BUSPH, and a project coordinator in the Department of Community Health Sciences, BUSPH. His research interests include neighborhood context and alcohol and drug use among adolescents.

Carlos A. Hernández-Ávila, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist with a specialty in addiction psychiatry. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, and is affiliated with the Alcohol Research Center at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

Héctor Fernández Varela, MD, is a pediatrician and the Director General of Medical Services at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He oversees all medical and dental services to UNAM students and is responsible for an annual health survey administered to all entering first year students across the 10 UNAM campuses in Mexico City, which focuses on early detection of health problems.

GLOSSARY

• Ethnographic interviewing: anthropological method of describing the local point of view and social organization, the culture of a people, and results in studying systems of meaning and rules (Hahn, 1995).

• Interpretive paradigm: in this study, interviews were analyzed to inform and develop concepts and theories related to beliefs, behaviors, traditions, and alcohol-related risk and protective factors of young people.

• Stratified, purposeful sample: the goal of purposeful sampling strategies is to understand a phenomenon, not to represent a population (Patton, 2002).

• The social aspect of drinking: drinking in a social setting and/or using alcohol to foster socialization with peers.