Patterns of Problem Drinking Among Employed African American Men Preliminary Results from a National Survey:: Preliminary Results from a National Survey

Abstract

Existing surveys of African-American drinking patterns have not adequately differentiated those social structural and cultural vari­ ables that may account for intra-group differences in alcohol con­ sumption patterns. In this report we provide a brief overview of the existing literature and develop logic to support a more comprehen­ sive modeling of blacks' drinking behaviors that explores the influ­ ences of several social structural and cultural variables hypothesized to either place African Americans at risk for, or protect against, maladaptive drinking. Using data obtained from a subsample of 826 employed African American men drawn from a recent survey of African American workers we broadly establish the theoretical util­ ity of a model of drinking behaviors that focuses on a series of em­ pirically verified race-specific risks and protections that partially ac­ count for blacks' intra-group variation in drinking patterns and out­ comes. This model provides a more nuanced and much-needed al­ ternative to the "Social Disorganization Paradigm" that has too long dominated the sociological discourse on race and drinking behaviors. 

According to some commentators, alcohol abuse is the number one health and social problem in the Black community (Williams 1982; Harper 1976). Alcohol researchers, however, have largely ignored patterns of drinking in this population. As Harper and Dawkins (1976) point out in their frequently cited review of over 16,000 alcohol-related studies published between the 1940s and the 1970s, only 77, or approximately 5 percent, dealt with African­ Americans' drinking, and only 11 studies dealt exclusively with members of this population (Harper and Dawkins 1976). The reasons for this omission emphasize African Americans' relatively small proportional representation in the U.S. population, (Caetano 1984; Herd 1985). Specifically, two factors have combined to limit studies of African American drinking: (1) the difficulty in recruiting African American respondents on other than an availability basis; and (2) the statistical fact that there are often too few African American respondents in national samples to develop reliable estimates (Martin 2000).

Recently, however, scholarly attention to African Americans'patterns of alcohol consumption has increased Qones-Webb 1998; Martin 2000). The efforts of researchers involved in analyzing data from the African American over-sample  from the  1984 National Alcohol Survey (NAS), and the Epidemiological Catchment Area Surveys (ECA), have significantly increased our understanding of drinking  patterns  and,  in  particular,  the  prevalence  of  problem drinking behaviors in the African American population (Herd 1985, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1994a; Herd and Grube 1993, 1996; Clark and Hilton 1991;  Robins   1985). This literature remains   deficient, however, in at least one important regard. The existing surveys of African-American drinking patterns have not adequately differentiated  those  social  structural  and  cultural  variables  that distinguish sub-groups within the African American population. In other words, the existing research has not sufficiently considered intra-group differences in African American drinking (Fernandez­ Po!, Bluestone, Missouri, Morales, and Mizruchi 1986; Martin 2000).

Below we provide a brief overview of the existing literature and develop logic to support a more comprehensive modeling of Blacks' drinking behaviors. We then examine data obtained from a recent survey of African American workers to explore the influences of the social structural and cultural variables that comprise this model as they operate to either place African Americans at risk for, or protect against, maladaptive drinking.

* This research was supported by research mt ROl-AA- 10243 and training grant T32-AA- 07473 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the R. Brinkley Smithers' Institute for Alcohol  Related  Work­ place Studics'Symposium on Alcohol in the Workplace, Ocwber, 2000. Address all corrcspon· dencc to J.K. Martin, Department of Sociology, Institute of Social Research, 1022 E. Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405.