Funding: NIAAA R03 AA019791
Despite high rates of heavy drinking among Asian American adolescents and increasing prevalence of alcohol dependence and abuse among Asian American young adults, little research has been reported on predictors of Asian American adolescent drinking and their outcomes in young adulthood. This study produces a secondary analysis of a longitudinal Asian American sample extracted from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data. This study tests hypotheses that low attachment to parents, low parental control, more close friends who drink, low academic performance, low school bonding, and high alcohol availability will be associated with higher initial levels of alcohol use in adolescence and with increases in alcohol use over time. In addition, we will examine interactions between ethnic drinking culture, generational status, and neighborhood socio-economic status with individual-level predictors of Asian American adolescents’ trajectories of alcohol use. Our findings will greatly improve knowledge of Asian American adolescent and young adult drinking and inform effective intervention strategies.
