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.
| Epstein, Jennifer A; Botvin, Gilbert J (2002) The moderating role of risk-taking tendency and refusal assertiveness on social influences in alcohol use among inner-city adolescents. J Stud Alcohol 63:456-9 |
| Epstein, Jennifer A; Griffin, Kenneth W; Botvin, Gilbert J (2002) Positive impact of competence skills and psychological wellness in protecting inner-city adolescents from alcohol use. Prev Sci 3:95-104 |
| Epstein, J A; Griffin, K W; Botvin, G J (2001) Risk taking and refusal assertiveness in a longitudinal model of alcohol use among inner-city adolescents. Prev Sci 2:193-200 |
| Epstein, J A; Botvin, G J; Diaz, T (2001) Alcohol use among Dominican and Puerto Rican adolescents residing in New York City: role of Hispanic group and gender. J Dev Behav Pediatr 22:113-8 |
| Epstein, J A; Griffin, K W; Botvin, G J (2000) Role of general and specific competence skills in protecting inner-city adolescents from alcohol use. J Stud Alcohol 61:379-86 |
