Drinking in second generation black and asian communities in the english midlands

Abstract

Previous research has suggested low levels of drinking and high rates of abstinence amongst members of ethnic minority groups in Britain, but it was not clear that those conclusions applied equally to those born or educated in Britain. Using quota sampling and street interviewing methods, a sample of 1684 second or subsequent generation men and women from Black (African), African-Caribbean, and Black (British), Indian Hindu, Indian Sikh, Bengali, and Pakistani communities in two Midlands cities completed a brief structured interview during February and March 1999. Results differed markedly by ethnic group, and sometimes by sex. Most Black men and women and most Sikh men were drinkers, and rates of heavy drinking in those groups were comparable to those found in national general population samples. The drinking of substantial minorities in those groups gives cause for concern on account, for example, of regular heavy drinking and associated behaviour carrying social or health risks. Hindu, Pakistani and Bengali men and women, and Sikh women, on the other hand, reported high levels of abstinence, with much smaller proportions of the total (but similar proportions of drinkers) drinking heavily and giving cause for concern. Both men's and women's drinking (ethnic groups combined) was correlated with a lower self-rated identity with religion, and in addition women's drinking was correlated with a range of other social and cultural variables (more qualified, employed, single, smaller household, fewer friends from own ethnic group). Large proportions of South Asian men and women drinkers believed their parents did not know about their drinking, and preferred that parents should not know. GPs and health centres were widely recognised as sources of external advice for drinking problems. Community centres and leaders and places of worship were very little mentioned as sources of such help, and in nearly all groups there was a high level of reluctance to seek help outside the family or friendship network. It is concluded that, whilst many second and subsequent generation South Asian people in Britain remain protected from indigenous patterns of drinking by cultural and religious norms, that is no longer the case for Sikh men nor for Black men and women, nor for small minorities of other South Asian groups who drink.

• Drinking
• Black Communities
• Asian Communities
• Abstinence