Author: Charles Frank

Alcohol use, acculturation and socioeconomic status among Hispanic Latino men and women: The Hispanic Community Health Study Study of Latinos PMC

In traditional Hispanic culture, women typically do not drink alcohol outside of small family gatherings or other private settings. Recent evidence shows that some young Hispanic women are drinking as much as or more than young Hispanic men. Living and working in the United States, raising families here, speaking English, and above all, getting an American education all contribute to adapting to American culture.

1. “Cultural competence can mean [language], but significant portions of the Latinx community in the United States call English their first language.
2. However, the issue of substance abuse, particularly abuse of alcohol, in individuals of Hispanic origin living in the United States is very complicated, is most likely not fully addressed, and deserves special considerations.
3. In addition, it has been suggested that attitudes toward alcohol may now be very similar between male and female Hispanic emerging adults, and thus, acculturation may not have the same pronounced effect on drinking attitudes and alcohol use outcomes among Hispanic women (Montoya et al., 2016).
4. Using PROCESS v3.2 for SPSS (Hayes, 2017), moderation analyses were conducted with 50,000 bootstraps to examine the extent to which potential moderating variables influenced the direction and/or strength of respective associations with alcohol use severity.

These differences would most likely not approach statistical significance (except perhaps for the overall percentages of individuals who received treatment for any substance use disorder). However, the issue of substance abuse, particularly abuse of alcohol, in individuals of Hispanic origin living in the United States is very complicated, is most likely not fully addressed, and deserves special considerations. Examining interactions between acculturation and bicultural self-efficacy would not only deepen our understanding of bicultural self-efficacy, but it would also advance our understanding of substance use behavior among ethnic minorities. Some key components of this framework are that acculturation can act as a moderator that influences distinct forms of adaptation. One type of adaptation in this framework is sociocultural adaptation, operationalized as a person’s “fit” within their new receiving culture and ability to respond to the demands of the social environment.

Social groundedness represents the level of confidence an individual has in establishing social networks in both cultural groups (David et al., 2009). It is hypothesized that the ability to establish and maintain social networks in both cultures improves a person’s capacity to cope with the demands of living in a bicultural context (LaFromboise et al., 1993). Role repertoire refers to one’s level of confidence in using or learning culturally appropriate behaviors in relation to both cultural groups (David et al., 2009).

Briefly, a stratified two-stage area probability sample of household addresses was selected in each of the four field centers. The first sampling stage randomly selected census block groups with stratification based on Hispanic/Latino concentration and proportion of high/low socio-economic status. Unfortunately, Latinos who struggle with severe alcohol issues are less likely than their White peers to seek they treatment they need, according to the NIAAA. Unfortunately, Latinos who choose to drink are more likely to consume higher volumes of alcohol than non-Hispanic Whites, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

The evidence is clear that as women become acculturated to American life, they tend to drink more alcohol. The overall treatment program for an alcohol use disorder as specified by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) would not vary substantially. According to a joint effort produced by SAMHSA and the Centers for Substance Abuse Treatment, it should include some specific considerations. Recent evidence shows some young Hispanic women are drinking as much or even more than young Hispanic men. Living and working in the United States, raising families here, speaking English, and above all, getting an American education all contribute to adapting to American culture.

The Harsh Impact of Alcohol on the Latino Community

Plus, the 2020 NSDUH reports that 18.4% of people with Hispanic or Latinx backgrounds were living with a mental health condition (other than SUD) in 2020. Two-way interaction with study site moderating the association between U.S. orientation and alcohol use severity. Across all Hispanic national groups, beer is the preferred beverage, followed by wine and then liquor. Other bad practices and health risks brought upon by alcohol include impaired driving, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and liver disease. While binge drinking can bring upon health problems and lead to serious risks such as unintentional injuries like motor vehicle crashes, falls, burns, and alcohol poisoning. The NIAAA reported that in 2019, 825,000 young people reported binge drinking on 5 or more days over the past month.

Another common trope of many treatment programs is “you can’t help people if you’re not helping yourself,” an idea that isn’t quite compatible with someone who, for example, may be supporting their family financially. To learn what might help improve the quality of care for Latinx populations, Psych Central spoke with Sheila Vakharia, PhD, licensed master social worker, former social work professor specializing in addictions, and deputy director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at Drug Policy Alliance. Though research and awareness about mental health and substance use in the Latinx community is increasing, more still needs to be done.

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Lastly, generalizability may be limited due to the non-probability sampling technique that was utilized in the current study. Also, the sample size adequacy limited the ability to examine subgroup variations attributable to different Hispanic heritage groups. One of our moderation analysis indicated that gender did not moderate the association between acculturation orientations and alcohol use severity. One explanation for this null finding is that historically, men have reported higher rates for various alcohol use outcomes compared to women, but those differences are narrowing—particularly among emerging adults (Delker, Brown, & Hasin, 2016).

Given the growing numbers of Mexican background individuals in the US, more research is needed to further examine factors that may contribute to at-risk alcohol use among this group. Further, more research is needed to examine acculturation levels and potential mediators (e.g., acculturative stress) and at-risk drinking for Hispanic/Latina women. Overall, these findings underlie the importance of tailoring research and intervention programs to examine socio-economic and sex-specific factors contributing to alcohol use among Hispanics/Latinos. The present analyses used data from a cross-sectional study with a sample of 200 participants from the Project on Health among Emerging Adult Latinos (Project HEAL). A quota sampling design was used to enroll participants in Maricopa County, Arizona and Miami-Dade County, Florida.

While researchers observed some differences with regard to gender, whether people were born within or outside the United States, and ethnic subgroups, they nonetheless concluded that discrimination affected the health and well-being of all members of the Latinx community. In fact, White Hispanic men have the highest rates of alcohol-related cirrhosis, a serious liver disease, of all ethnic or racial groups. But Black Hispanic men (e.g., from the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, or Cuba) have the lowest cirrhosis rates when compared with non-Hispanic White men. About 9.5% of Hispanics will have severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) at some point in their lives as compared with about 13.8% of non-Hispanic White people. However, 33.0% of Hispanics who develop severe AUD have recurrent or persistent problems as compared with 22.8% of non-Hispanic White people. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess odds of alcohol use (former and current versus never (reference)) and alcohol use disorder risk (low and at-risk versus no risk (reference)).

However, the RLIS has an excellent retention rate and selection bias due to loss to follow up is not likely to effect the sample. Graph of the interaction of family history of alcohol use and positive alcohol outcome expectancies. In addition, respective communities of settlement may also have a distinct context of reception—the social expectations of how immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities should interact with and acculturate toward the receiving culture (Schwartz et al., 2010; Schwartz, Unger, et al., 2014). All other reported values (means and prevalence rates) were weighted to account for the disproportionate selection of the sample and to at least partially adjust for any bias effects due to differential nonresponse in the selected sample at the household and person levels.

Acculturation and Alcohol

This framework also proposed that individuals who develop a higher degree of sociocultural adaptation are more likely to experience better psychological adaptation (e.g., psychological and behavioral well-being; Berry, 1997). Building on this framework, we propose that acculturation will function as a moderator between indicators of sociocultural adaptation (e.g., bicultural self-efficacy domains) and an indicator of psychological adaptation (e.g., alcohol use). Two-way interaction with Hispanic orientation moderating the association between the social groundedness domain of bicultural self-efficacy and alcohol use severity. One limitation of this study is the cross-sectional design which does not allow for the exploration of the directionality of the associations among SES, acculturation, gender, and alcohol use. Additionally, this study is limited to four major metropolitan cities in the United States and does not include rural Hispanics/Latinos.

However, several global studies have shown a clear association between negative alcohol-related health outcomes, such as alcohol-related mortality and socioeconomic deprivation[19–21]. Thus, while at-risk levels may not vary by SES, when considering the negative effects, the relationship with SES is strengthened making low-SES individual much more at risk. One study has shown that low-SES Latinos, specifically of Mexican-origin, in the United States may be at disproportionate risk of harmful drinking patterns pervasive in their country of origin [22].

Here are some ways Vakharia suggests treatment can be overhauled to more adequately respond to the needs of the Latinx community on a systemic level, with societal and political support. ”The stressors of adapting to life in the [United States] and the accompanying stressors of difficult working and living conditions may be what partially explains the link between acculturation measures and substance use,” says Cano. Both acculturation and assimilation have been found to impact substance use within the Latinx community, for example in 2008 and 2019 research.

Self-reported past-month use of alcohol in Hispanic adolescents (15.8%) was generally consistent with the national average of past-month alcohol use for individuals between the ages of 12 and 17 (16%). This report card has maps and data visualizations that shows inequities in local access to healthcare, food, education, and other social determinants of health. Binge drinking is most common among younger adults aged 18–34 and is nearly twice as common among men than among women. The CDC also reports that 1 in 6 U.S. adults binge drinks, with 25% doing so at least weekly.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08%—or 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter—or more. This typically happens if a woman has four or more drinks, or a man has five or more drinks, within about 2 hours. These differences are good to know when treating Hispanics for problems with alcohol, but the basics of treatment remain the same. We’re all responsible for dealing with our problems and to do what’s necessary to manage recovery. When it comes to Hispanics and alcohol — problems with alcohol, Ideas about alcohol and treatment for alcohol dependence — are Hispanics different from non-Hispanic whites?