Citation

Zamboanga BL, Raffaelli M, Horton NJ. Addict. Behav. 2006; 31(12): 2188-2198.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA. bzamboan@smith.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.02.018

PMID

16603321

Abstract

We examined whether gender moderates the association between acculturation and heavy alcohol use. The sample consisted of 126 Mexican American college students (Mean age=24.7 years; 57% female) who completed self-report measures of heavy alcohol use, acculturation status (global acculturation and ethnic identity), and relevant control variables (age, peer alcohol use). Multivariable regression revealed that higher levels of ethnic identity were associated with greater frequency of heavy alcohol among men. Conversely, neither measure of acculturation was associated with heavy alcohol use among women. These findings suggest that interventions for Latino/a students should consider the role of culturally relevant variables in heavy alcohol use, particularly for men. They also have implications regarding how acculturation is operationalized in alcohol studies, and suggest directions for future research.

Language: en