The Hispanic Americans Baseline Alcohol Survey (HABLAS):Predictive invariance of Demographic Characteristics on Attitudes towards Alcohol across Hispanic National Groups (original) (raw)
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Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2011
Background: Multiple theoretical frameworks identify attitudes and expectancies as important predictors of alcohol behavior. Few studies have examined demographic predictors of these evaluative and belief-based cognitive mediators in the general population, and none have examined them in large-scale studies of Hispanics, a group at higher risk for drinking behavior and problems. This study probes the extent to which dimensions of attitudes and expectancies share common demographic predictors in a large sample of Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and South ⁄ Central Americans.
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2013
The present study used a cultural and social cognitive conceptual framework to investigate whether alcohol expectancies and valuations would mediate the associations between specific acculturation orientations and alcohol-related risk behaviors. Design: The sample comprised 1,527 Hispanic students attending colleges and universities in diverse regions of the United States. Respondents completed self-report measures of Hispanic and American cultural practices; alcohol expectancies and valuations; and self-reported frequency of hazardous alcohol use, binge drinking, sexual activity under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of alcohol, and riding with a drunk driver. Latent class analysis was used to classify participants into acculturation orientations. Results: Results indicated that acculturation orientations were differentially associated with alcoholrelated risk outcomes, with separated bicultural and low bicultural orientations inversely related to all of the alcohol-related risk behaviors except for riding with a drunk driver. Negative expectancy valuations were positively associated with endorsement of binge drinking and drunk driving and negative expectancies were negatively associated with binge drinking, drunk driving, and riding with a drunk driver. With the exception of sexual activity under the influence of alcohol, the associations between acculturation orientations and alcohol-related risk behaviors were partially mediated by positive alcohol expectancies. Conclusions: Our findings provided relevant data that are informative for preventing alcohol and related risk behaviors among Hispanic college students.
Acculturation, Expectancies, and Alcohol Risk Behaviors
Objectives: The present study used a cultural and social cognitive conceptual framework to investigate whether alcohol expectancies and valuations would mediate the associations between specific acculturation orientations and alcohol-related risk behaviors. Design: The sample comprised 1,527 Hispanic students attending colleges and universities in diverse regions of the United States. Respondents completed self-report measures of Hispanic and American cultural practices; alcohol expectancies and valuations; and self-reported frequency of hazardous alcohol use, binge drinking, sexual activity under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of alcohol, and riding with a drunk driver. Latent class analysis was used to classify participants into acculturation orientations.
Addictive Behaviors, 2012
This study examines the psychometric properties of alcohol expectancies among Hispanic subgroups. Face-to-face interviews were conducted as part of the 2006 Hispanic Americans Baseline Alcohol Survey (HABLAS), which employed a multistage cluster sample design. A total of 5,224 individuals (18+ years of age) representing four Hispanic national groups (Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, Mexican Americans, and South/Central Americans) were selected at random from the household population in five metropolitan areas (Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Houston, and Los Angeles). Alcohol expectancies included 18 items covering positive (e.g., laugh more, become more talkative) and negative dimensions (e.g., become aggressive, lose control) when alcohol is consumed. Confirmatory factor models replicated a previously proposed threefactor dimensional structure with a substantial majority of items exhibiting measurement invariance across Hispanic national group and gender. Items covering social extroversion were an exception, showing a lack of invariance for female Cuban and South/Central Americans. Latent mean differences across groups were detected for expectancies concerning emotional fluidity, and the pattern of differences largely mirrored known differences in alcohol consumption patterns. Results suggest that caution should be exercised in interpreting differences in expectancies concerning social extroversion across Hispanic groups, and additional work is needed to identify indices of this construct with invariant measurement properties. However, measures of emotional/ behavioral impairment and emotional fluidity expectancies can be validly compared across gender and Hispanic national groups.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2012
Prior research has reported racial/ethnic differences in the early initiation of alcohol use, suggesting that cultural values that are central to specific racial/ethnic groups may be influencing these differences. This one-year longitudinal study examines associations between two types of cultural values, parental respect (honor for one's parents) and familism (connectedness with family), both measured at baseline, and subsequent alcohol initiation in a sample of 6,054 (49% male; 18% non-Hispanic White, 4% non-Hispanic Black, 57% Hispanic, and 22% Asian) middle school students in Southern California. We tested whether the associations of cultural values with alcohol initiation could be explained by baseline measures of alcohol resistance self-efficacy (RSE) and alcohol expectancies. We also explored whether these pathways differed by race/ ethnicity. In the full sample, adolescents with higher parental respect were less likely to initiate alcohol use, an association that was partially explained by higher RSE and fewer positive alcohol expectancies. Familism was not significantly related to alcohol initiation. Comparing racial/ethnic groups, higher parental respect was protective against alcohol initiation for Whites and Asians, but not Blacks or Hispanics. There were no racial/ethnic differences in the association between familism and alcohol initiation. Results suggest that cultural values are important factors in the decision to use alcohol and these values appear to operate in part, by influencing alcohol positive expectancies and RSE. Interventions that focus on maintaining strong cultural values and building strong bonds between adolescents and their families may help reduce the risk of alcohol initiation.
Alcohol expectancies and their relationship to alcohol use: Age and sex differences
Aging & Mental Health, 2001
Previous studies have demonstrated a correlation between expectancies that adolescents and young adults hold about the effects of alcohol and the amount of alcohol they consume. This study examined age and sex differences in expectancies and alcohol consumption in a sample of 92 older and 83 younger adults. The two groups were administered self-report questionnaires for quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, and for positive and negative expectancies regarding the effects of alcohol. Results found lower quantities of alcohol consumption per occasion in older adults, but higher frequency of drinking occasions. Older adults reported significantly lower levels of both positive and negative expectancies when compared with the younger sample. Among older women, regression analyses found a significant relationship between negative expectancies and lower alcohol consumption. For older men, positive expectancies showed a positive relationship to consumption, while negative expectancies showed a negative relationship to consumption. For younger women, positive expectancies were related to increased consumption. These findings suggest different strategies based on age and sex in treatment models, which identify expectancies as important components of drinking behavior.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 1997
Expectancies play an important role in the generation of adolescent alcohol use. However, few studies have precisely elucidated their role when specified with other prominent measures of social influences, which may also independently promote alcohol use. Three-year panel data and path-analytic techniques were used to test a model positing that social reinforcement expectancies mediate the effects of perceived friends' alcohol use, friends' alcohol attitudes, and knowledge of near-term health effects and alcohol prevalence on both contemporaneous and subsequent alcohol involvement. Evidence of mediation was obtained with both cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. Perceived peer norms had a direct effect on alcohol use, and knowledge of normative alcohol use had a unique long-term protective influence on later alcohol use. Findings are discussed in terms of a 2-pronged prevention model that (a) integrates principles of social learning theory with expectancy-based, cognitive-behavioral change and (b) emphasizes dissemination of age-appropriate alcohol information in programs that aim to reduce alcohol use.
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2010
Per definition, alcohol expectancies (after alcohol I expect X), and drinking motives (I drink to achieve X) are conceptually distinct constructs. Theorists have argued that motives mediate the association between expectancies and drinking outcomes. Yet, given the use of different instruments, do these constructs remain distinct when assessment items are matched? The present study tested to what extent motives mediated the link between expectancies and alcohol outcomes when identical items were used, first as expectancies and then as motives. A linear structural equation model was estimated based on a national representative sample of 5,779 alcohol-using students in Switzerland (mean age ϭ 15.2 years). The results showed that expectancies explained up to 38% of the variance in motives. Together with motives, they explained up to 48% of the variance in alcohol outcomes (volume, 5ϩ drinking, and problems). In 10 of 12 outcomes, there was a significant mediated effect that was often higher than the direct expectancy effect. For coping, the expectancy effect was close to zero, indicating the strongest form of mediation. In only one case (conformity and 5ϩ drinking), there was a direct expectancy effect but no mediation. To conclude, the study demonstrates that motives are distinct from expectancies even when identical items are used. Motives are more proximally related to different alcohol outcomes, often mediating the effects of expectancies. Consequently, the effectiveness of interventions, particularly those aimed at coping drinkers, should be improved through a shift in focus from expectancies to drinking motives.
Modeling cognitive influences on drinking and alcohol problems
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2009
We explored the relationships between two domains of alcohol-related cognitions (expectations and reasons for drinking) and their associations with alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence. It is hypothesized that alcohol-related cognitions will relate directly to drinking behaviors and indirectly to alcohol dependence. Data came from the 1995 National Alcohol Survey, which included black and Hispanic oversamples. The analysis was restricted to 2,817 respondents who reported alcohol consumption at least once in the past year. Path analysis, including key demographic factors, modeled the associations between expectations, reasons for drinking, frequency of heavy drinking, and alcohol dependence. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded separate latent variables for expectations (positive and negative), reasons for drinking (social and escape), frequency of heavy alcohol use, and alcohol-dependence symptoms. Associations between positive expectations and frequency of hea...
Journal of studies on alcohol, 1995
The alcohol expectancy construct has become prominent in contemporary psychosocial approaches to understanding alcohol use and abuse. In 1980 Brown and colleagues developed the 90-item Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) to assess experiences. Rohsenow modified this instrument to create the 40-item Alcohol Effects Questionnaire (AEQ-2). In the present study, we replaced the dichotomous response format of the AEQ-2 with a six-point scale to create the AEQ-3. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the AEQ-3 for factor structure confirmation and invariance across gender and race subgroups. We administered the AEQ-3 to a large general population sample (N = 1,260). The instrument was self-administered during a structured interview. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test a correlated eight-factor model consisting of six positive expectancies and two negative expectancies. Fit indices revealed that the eight-factor model fit the data moderately well. Furthermore, the fit...