Although alcohol use has declined substantially over the past two decades, it remains a serious problem in the U.S.; twenty percent of the population had at least one episode of binge drinking during the past year and one in eight drinkers drank heavily. Moreover, prevalence rates for youth and young adults have remained fairly stable over the past few years. Minority groups tend to be over-represented among those who suffer from the adverse health and social consequences associated with alcohol, although they report similar or lower levels of alcohol use, and differences in socio-economic status do not fully account for the differences in the adverse health and social outcomes. Much prior research has focused on short-term effects or on adolescent drinking, rather than on the possible long-term effects of alcohol abuse, and has not devoted enough attention to the importance of childhood living arrangements, alcohol use by adult relatives, and sibling behavior. There are important racial and ethnic differences in patterns of alcohol use and in these family factors, and these differences may help account for observed racial and ethnic differences in the adverse health and social outcomes associated with alcohol. The proposed study will use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a large nationally representative longitudinal data set that has followed respondents for 18 years, to examine whether detrimental effects of alcohol abuse only appear when there is intensive, persistent or long-term use. The NLSY also contains detailed information on childhood living arrangements, alcohol use by adult relatives, and on older siblings' adverse health and social outcomes, including alcohol use. The proposed research will employ the NLSY to examine how these family factors are associated with alcohol use and adverse health and social outcomes. Throughout the proposed analysis, we will examine the extent to which family factors account for observed racial and ethnic differences in alcohol use, how differences in these factors and alcohol use account for differences in adverse outcomes, and examine how the effects of each of these factors vary by race and ethnicity. We will also test and control for possible unobserved factors and reciprocal effects that may bias empirical estimates.
| Bobo, Janet Kay; Klepinger, Daniel H; Dong, Frederick B (2006) Changes in the prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy among recent and at-risk drinkers in the NLSY cohort. J Womens Health (Larchmt) 15:1061-70 |
