Alcohol-related problems continue to be a major source of concern in the United States. Specifically, alcohol has been associated with a wide variety of illnesses and has been implicated in accidents, falls, fires, drownings and suicides. Adolescence is the critical period to intervene to prevent alcohol abuse before it begins or escalates. As ethnic minority groups have become the target of alcohol advertising recently, inner-city Hispanic and Black youth may be at greater risk of alcohol use and deserve further attention. Before effective programs can be implemented with multi-ethnic urban youth, research elucidating the etiology of alcohol, use among these predominantly minority adolescents is necessary. This application proposes secondary analyses to examine the longitudinal predictors of alcohol use for multi-ethnic youth and make ethnic comparisons among three ethnic groups (Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites). This study would capitalize on data already collected as part of a large-scale prevention trial that was funded by NCI to assess the efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral skills training program on smoking (1 R18 CA 39280; P.I. Gilbert J. Botvin, Ph.D.). The proposed study will examine untreated control subjects only from a longitudinal cohort collected between 1988 and 1991. The panel design will focus on three assessments: (1) the baseline measurement, (2) the one-year follow-up, and (3) the two-year follow-up. Measures assessed a wide range of concepts expected to relate to adolescent alcohol use: social influences for alcohol use including normative beliefs about alcohol use, social skills efficacy, social skills knowledge, assertiveness, decision-making, self efficacy, self-esteem, risk-taking, and psychological distress. Structural equations modeling will be used to test theoretical models and conduct multiple group comparisons based on ethnicity. This research is significant because it will increase our understanding of the etiology of alcohol use in understudied minority groups. In addition, the longitudinal analyses will go beyond prior work that only determined cross-sectional predictors of alcohol use among Hispanic and Black adolescents. Results of this research will provide information relevant to development of more effective alcohol prevention approaches for these multi-ethnic urban youth.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
5R21AA011434-02
Application #
2871417
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAA1-BB (01))
Program Officer
Boyd, Gayle M
Project Start
1998-02-01
Project End
2002-01-31
Budget Start
1999-02-01
Budget End
2002-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
201373169
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10065