TY - JOUR
T1 - Alcohol use among recent immigrant Latino/a youth
T2 - acculturation, gender, and the Theory of Reasoned Action
AU - Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I.
AU - Schwartz, Seth J.
AU - Unger, Jennifer B.
AU - Zamboanga, Byron L.
AU - Des Rosiers, Sabrina E.
AU - Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes
AU - Huang, Shi
AU - Villamar, Juan A.
AU - Soto, Daniel
AU - Pattarroyo, Monica
N1 - Funding Information:
The present study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse [grant number DA025694] and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
PY - 2016/11/1
Y1 - 2016/11/1
N2 - Objective. 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. Design. 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. Results. 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. Conclusion. 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.
AB - Objective. 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. Design. 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. Results. 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. Conclusion. 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.
KW - Acculturation
KW - Latino/a youth
KW - Theory of Reasoned Action
KW - alcohol use
KW - gender
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U2 - 10.1080/13557858.2016.1179723
DO - 10.1080/13557858.2016.1179723
M3 - Article
C2 - 27220730
AN - SCOPUS:84969766542
VL - 21
SP - 609
EP - 627
JO - Ethnicity and Health
JF - Ethnicity and Health
SN - 1355-7858
IS - 6
ER -
