title: Acculturation and parental attachment in Asian-American adolescents' alcohol use.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test whether the degree of acculturation predicts subsequent alcohol use among Asian-American adolescents, and to test the moderating effect of parental attachment.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a prospective study using a subsample of the National Longitudinal Adolescent Health data set. A nationally representative sample of 714 Asian-American boys (n = 332) and girls (n = 382) in grades 7-12 was analyzed. In-home self-report data were collected on two types of acculturation status, alcohol use, demographics, and parental attachment. After controlling for acculturation status and background variables at Wave I, logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios to assess the association between acculturation and alcohol use at Wave II for adolescents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Asian-American adolescents with the highest level of acculturation (English use at home, born in the United States) were identified as the highest risk group. For adolescents with low parental attachment, the odds of alcohol use were 11 times greater in the highly acculturated group than in the least acculturated group. However, the odds of alcohol use for adolescents with moderate or high levels of parental attachment did not vary across acculturation groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, a greater level of acculturation was associated with greater alcohol use. However, when parental attachment was taken into account, highly acculturated adolescents with moderate or high parental attachment had no greater risk than adolescents with same levels of parental attachment who were less acculturated. Thus, it appears that acculturation per se was not a risk factor unless it was accompanied by a low level of parental attachment.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, New York, USA. H2000@uclink.berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Hyeouk C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hahm
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lahiff
authors.forename: Neil B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Guterman
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology*; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010287:Parent-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology