title: Alcohol use among recent immigrant Latino/a youth: acculturation, gender, and the Theory of Reasoned Action.
abstract: Latino/a youth are at risk for alcohol use. This risk seems to rise with increasing US cultural orientation and decreasing Latino cultural orientation, especially among girls. To ascertain how acculturation may influence Latino/a youth alcohol use, we integrated an expanded multi-domain model of acculturation with the Theory of Reasoned Action.
  
  
  
  Participants were 302 recent Latino/a immigrant youth (141 girls, 160 boys; 152 from Miami, 150 from Los Angeles) who completed surveys at 4 time points. Youth completed measures of acculturation, attitudes toward drinking, perceived subjective norms regarding alcohol use, intention to drink, and alcohol use.
  
  
  
  Structural equation modeling indicated that collectivistic values predicted more perceived disapproval of drinking, which negatively predicted intention to drink. Intention to drink predicted elevated alcohol use.
  
  
  
  Although the association between collectivistic values and social disapproval of drinking was relatively small (β = .19, p < .05), findings suggest that collectivistic values may help protect Latino/a immigrant youth from alcohol use by influencing their perceived social disapproval of drinking, leading to lower intention to drink. Educational preventive interventions aimed at reducing or preventing alcohol use in recent Latino/a immigrant youth could promote collectivistic values and disseminate messages about the negative consequences of drinking.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of South Carolina , Columbia , SC , USA.
authors.forename: Elma I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Lorenzo-Blanco
authors.affiliation: b Department of Public Health Sciences, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine , University of Miami , Miami , FL , USA.
authors.forename: Seth J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: c Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research , Keck School of Medicine, USC , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.affiliation: d Department of Psychology , Smith College , Northampton , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Byron L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Zamboanga
authors.affiliation: e Department of Psychology , Barry University , Miami Shores , FL , USA.
authors.forename: Sabrina E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Des Rosiers
authors.affiliation: f Preventive Medicine , Keck School of Medicine, USC , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baezconde-Garbanati
authors.affiliation: b Department of Public Health Sciences, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine , University of Miami , Miami , FL , USA.
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: g Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine , Northwestern University , Chicago , IL , USA.
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Villamar
authors.affiliation: c Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research , Keck School of Medicine, USC , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Soto
authors.affiliation: c Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research , Keck School of Medicine, USC , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pattarroyo
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D001290:Attitude; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D000066608:Underage Drinking / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Acculturation; Latino/a youth; Theory of Reasoned Action; alcohol use; gender