Alcohol use among Hispanic college students along the US/Mexico border

Abstract

Previous research indicates that greater acculturation is linked to greater consumption of alcohol; however, we found it to be associated with less consumption. The findings regarding gender represent some consistencies with previous research but there are some inconsistencies as well. These results suggest that less acculturated Hispanic male college students residing in the border region may be at a higher risk of alcohol abuse than Hispanic female students and more acculturated male students.

Drinking motives, cultural orientations, and alcohol use among Hispanic college students at the U.S.–Mexico border

“…Our findings support the notion that cultural orientations operate differently for Hispanic college students living at the U.S.-Mexico border than they do Hispanics living elsewhere (Montoya et al, 2016). Similar to another study with border Hispanics (Pinedo et al, 2017), heritage cultural orientation was not associated with alcohol consumption or negative drinking consequences.…”

“…The acculturation process is nuanced across individuals and critically depends on the sociocultural and physical environments surrounding the individuals (Berry, 2003;Borstein, 2017). Because U.S. and Hispanic cultures may be less differentiated at the U.S.-Mexico border than other parts of the U.S., cultural orientations conceivably do not operate similarly as they do in regions of the U.S. that are further from the border (Montoya et al, 2016).…”

“…Counter to the observation that higher levels of U.S. orientation were associated with increased alcohol use in many non-border samples (see Zamboanga et al, 2017;Zemore, 2007 for reviews), the relation was found to be in the opposite direction in border samples. For example, lower levels of U.S. orientation were associated with increased consumption among Hispanics at the border (e.g., Montoya et al, 2016). It remains critical to evaluate the extent to which cultural orientations account for variances in alcohol use outcomes over and above drinking motives and to examine the direction of the associations in the border Hispanic population.…”

A Critical Review and Meta‐Analysis of the Associations Between Acculturation and Alcohol Use Outcomes Among Hispanic Americans

“…Raffaelli et al., ; Safer and Piane, ). On the other hand, enculturation can function as a protective factor against hazardous alcohol use (e.g., Daniel‐Ulloa et al., ; Graves, ; Marsiglia et al., ; Montoya et al., ) possibly because enculturation helps to buffer against the negative impact of acculturative stress.…”

Pregaming among Latina/o emerging adults: Do acculturation and gender matter?

“…With respect to a risky drinking practice like drinking games participation, another study found that cultural practices with respect to U.S. acculturation and enculturation were associated positively and negatively, respectively, with frequency of drinking games participation and alcohol consumption for women, but not for men (Schwartz, Zamboanga et al, 2014). In short, while some research indicates that gender moderates the association between acculturation and drinking behaviors, not all bidimensional studies support this contention (Cano et al, 2015b; Montoya et al, 2016; Schweizer, Doran, Roesch, & Myers, 2011), thus raising continued questions about the effects of gender on these associations.…”