Drinking in adulthood: similarities and differences in effects of adult roles for Hispanic ethnic groups and Anglos.
OBJECTIVE
This study examines whether the adult social roles perspective. an approach that explains drinking behaviors for Anglos, similarly affects alcohol use by Cubans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Other Hispanics (Central and South Americans).


METHODS
The 1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, a national probability sample of the household population in the United States, is used. The sample utilized here (N= 13,822; 56.2% female) consisted of 9,388 Anglos, 611 Cubans, 2,459 Mexican Americans, 611 Puerto Ricans and 753 Central/South Americans age 18 and older. The outcome measures include past-year drinking, and for drinkers, heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems. Logistic regression analyses are conducted using Stata.


RESULTS
The results show that there are some ethnic differences in the effects of the adult social roles. Of particular importance is the finding that being married has anomalous effects for Cubans (heavy drinking), Mexican Americans (problems) and Other Hispanics (problems) compared with Anglos and the other Hispanic ethnic groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The adult social roles perspective has some utility for explaining Hispanic drinking patterns. Future research should consider not only traditional predictors of drinking but also such socio-cultural factors as acculturation and familism, to better understand adult alcohol use by members of Hispanic ethnic groups.
Nielsen
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Department of Sociology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33124, USA. nielsen@miami.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D002489:Central America / Q000208:ethnology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003462:Cuba / Q000208:ethnology; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012380:Role; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013020:South America / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People