Problematic drinking among Latina/o college students: the role of enculturation and traditional gender roles

University Of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio TX

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Abstract

Abstract Problematic drinking among college students is a major health concern in the United States [1]. Efforts have been made to apply large scale interventions to reduce drinking rates [e.g., 6], but most of these do not account for ethnic and cultural differences underlying drinking patterns. Research suggests Latina/o college students engage in more problematic drinking than college students from other ethnic minority groups [e.g., 8]. Research also indicates that Latina/os are disproportionately affected by many alcohol related problems when compared to non-Latina/o Whites [10,11], making empirical examination of this particular group highly important. Much of the existing research examining problematic drinking in Latina/o college students centers around acculturation [e.g., 9,14]. Notable trends in research suggest there are gender differences in the relationship between acculturation and problematic drinking in Latina/o college students [e.g., 9,13], but the factors underlying this relationship are understudied and remain unclear. Often, researchers imply that movement away from heritage cultural gender roles may account for much of the relationship between gender, acculturation, and problematic drinking [e.g., 17]; these speculations, however, are rarely measured. The proposed study seeks to address this gap by employing a prospective 2-wave longitudinal design to examine how changes in multi-dimensional heritage cultural gender role endorsements influences the relationship between orienting toward the heritage culture (i.e., enculturation) and problematic drinking (i.e., binge drinking, alcohol related problems) for Latino men and Latina women first year college students. Findings from this study will fill several gaps in the extant literature as well as inform more culturally sensitive interventions designed to reduce problematic drinking in college students.