Alcohol Research Group

  • Research
    • Overview
    • Disparities
    • Environment
    • Epidemiology
    • Health
    • International
    • Methodology
    • Policy
    • Treatment & Recovery
    • Intervention Trials
  • The Center
    • About
          • ABOUT THE CENTER

            • History, Mission, & Focus
          • MEET THE DIRECTOR


            Senior Scientist, William (Bill) C. Kerr, PhD, is Director of ARG’s National Alcohol Research Center and Co-Directs the National Alcohol Survey and the Health Disparities projects.  Bill also serves as the scientific director at ARG and continues to lead R01 projects, including a grant to investigate secondhand harms from alcohol and other drugs.

            Learn more

    • People
          • THE CENTER TEAM

            • Center Leadership
            • Scientific Advisory Board
            • Research Partners
          • MEET THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

            Scientist Nina Mulia, DrPH, is Center Associate Director and Director of the Alcohol Services project. She specializes in and has published widely on race and ethnicity and socioeconomic disparities in heavy drinking, alcohol problems, and alcohol services utilization.

            Learn more 

    • Research
          • CENTER RESEARCH

            • Cores
            • Research Projects
            • Affiliated Research
          • ASSESSING HID OVER THE LIFECOURSE

            This project, led by Camillia Lui, PhD, traces trends in harmful drinking patterns over a 40-year period, and identifies a range of alcohol-related precursors and problems through event-based and population-based approaches to inform early screening and interventions for high-risk groups.

            Learn more

    • National Alcohol Surveys
          • ABOUT THE SURVEY

            • About the National Alcohol Survey
            • NAS Datasets
            • Get Access to the NAS data
          • MEET THE SURVEY CO-DIRECTOR

            Scientist and Deputy Scientific Director, Priscilla Martinez, oversees the survey design, data collection, and analyses.  In the latest cycle of the NAS, Priscilla conducted dried blood spot sampling to help better understand the relationship between how our immune systems work and what role they might play in how alcohol use can affect our mental health.

            Learn more

  • Training Program
        • OVERVIEW

          • About the Training Program
          • Predoctoral Fellowship
          • Postdoctoral Fellowship
          • Seminars
        • APPLY NOW

          • Predoctoral Fellowship Application
          • Postdoctoral Fellowship Application
        • TRAINING STAFF

          • Faculty & Mentors
          • Current Fellows
  • Impacts
    • New Findings
    • In the News
    • Press Release
    • Publications
  • Data & Resources
    • Datasets
  • About
    • History
    • Mission, Vision, Values & Goals
    • Governance
    • Staff
    • Library
    • Employment
    • Support ARG
  • Donate

Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Younger Adults are Less Likely to Attend AA

January 30, 2024 by

AA attendance lower among African American, Hispanic and young populations

By Amy Norton

Alcoholics Anonymous has long been a cornerstone of treating alcohol use disorders in the United States. But even today, Americans are not accessing it equally, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA, got its start nearly 90 years ago and is famous for spurring the “12-step” approach to recovery — which includes acknowledging powerlessness over alcohol and giving your life over to a “higher power.”

Over the years, AA and similar “mutual-help groups” have become a staple of treatment for alcohol and other drug use disorders, and research has proven they can help people achieve lasting recovery.

Yet few studies have looked at whether Americans are actually using such support groups equally. The new findings, published in the January issue of JSAD, show they are not — and those disparities are just as clear today as 20 years ago.

After adjusting for other factors, the researchers found that between 2000 and 2020, Black and Hispanic/Latinx Americans with an alcohol use disorder were about 40% less likely to have ever attended AA meetings versus their White counterparts.

An even greater divide was seen between people younger than 30 and relatively older adults: Among adults younger than 30, less than 5% had ever attended AA — versus about 12% of adults age 30 and up. After adjusting for other factors, the younger group attended AA at about a third of the rate of their older counterparts.

Sarah E. Zemore, PhD Lead Author

“This is concerning, because the disparities suggest that these groups — Black, Latinx and emerging adults — are not receiving optimal care,” said lead researcher Sarah Zemore, Ph.D., a senior scientist with the Alcohol Research Group, in Emeryville, Calif.

“It’s known that mutual-help groups can be quite effective in initiating and sustaining recovery,” Zemore said.

And in the United States, she noted, they’ve become a cornerstone of addressing substance use disorders. In fact, more Americans turn to the free and widely available support groups than to specialty substance use treatment (meaning inpatient or outpatient programs for alcohol and drug problems).

Why then do disparities in AA participation exist?

This study cannot answer that question, Zemore said. But she and her colleagues did find that the explanation does not appear to rest in disparities in use of specialty substance use treatment: When they looked only at study participants who had received specialty treatment for substance use, they saw the same disparities in AA attendance.

According to Zemore, that suggests there may be something about AA that is “not attractive” to young adults and people of color.

Some past studies have suggested as much, the researchers point out: People of color attending 12-step meetings have, for instance, reported conflicts with the program’s general philosophy, as well as feelings of being scrutinized or discriminated against. Young adults, meanwhile, may often be turned off by the meetings’ religious nature.

The current findings are based on data from the National Alcohol Survey, which collects information on Americans’ drinking habits at roughly five-year intervals. The researchers focused on nearly 8,900 Americans who were surveyed between 2000 and 2020 and who reported ever having at least 2 of 11 symptoms used to diagnose an alcohol use disorder.

Gaps in AA attendance among people of color and young people were not explained by factors such as the severity of people’s alcohol-related problems or whether they had received specialty treatment. When the researchers accounted for those factors, Black adults, Hispanic/Latinx adults and young adults were still less likely to have attended AA.

Over the years, AA has evolved, now offering meetings in different languages and specifically for people of color and women, for instance. Based on the new findings, though, disparities in attendance have not narrowed since 2000.

“This problem probably isn’t going to be solved by AA alone,” Zemore said.

The key ingredient in AA and similar programs, she noted, seems to be the change in people’s “social networks.” That is, they offer a ready-made way to be around others who are working toward recovery.

AA is not the only option for people looking for peer support: Nationally, there are several mutual-help alternatives to 12-step programs, such as SMART Recovery and LifeRing.

It’s not clear from this study, Zemore said, whether similar disparities exist in Americans’ use of those alternative mutual-help groups.

—–

Zemore, S. E., Mericle, A. A., Martinez, P., Bergman, B. G., Karriker-Jaffe, K. J., Patterson, D., & Timko, C. (2024). Disparities in Alcoholics Anonymous participation from 2000 to 2020 among U.S. residents with an alcohol use disorder in the National Alcohol Survey. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 85(1), 32-40. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.23-00086

—–

Originally published at EurekAlert!: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1031778

Latest News

May 23rd, 2025
he Ripple Effect of Substance Use: How Alcohol and Drugs Harm Others
May 13th, 2025
Substance Use and Mental Health Risks Among U.S. College Students
May 2nd, 2025
The Long-Term Impact of Childhood Adversity on Adolescent and Young Adult Substance Use
April 10th, 2025
Understanding Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicide Risk Among Youth
April 8th, 2025
How Flawed Science Could Shape U.S. Alcohol Guidelines

Recent Findings

April 2nd, 2025
New Study Reveals Why Alcohol Use Increased During the Pandemic
November 23rd, 2024
Data disaggregation reveals hidden suicide risk
November 21st, 2024
Millions of Americans Hurt By Others’ Drinking, Drug Use: Study
September 4th, 2024
Alcohol Consumption Trends Across Disadvantaged Populations
June 4th, 2024
Socioeconomic status may determine how alcohol affects heart health

Newsletter Sign-up

Who We Are

About ARG

We are a non-profit research organization that seeks to improve public health through deepening our understanding of alcohol and other drug use and investigating innovative approaches to reduce its consequences for individuals, families, and communities.

  • Land Acknowledgement
  • History
  • Leadership
  • Staff
  • Job Opportunities
  • Accessibility Policy

What We Do

  • Mission, Vision, Values
  • Research Overview
  • National Alcohol Research Center
  • Methodology
  • Training

Newsroom

  • Access Our Data
  • In the News
  • Press Releases
  • Get in Touch

Connect with Us

Social

© 2025 Alcohol Research Group. Website Design and Development by HyperArts