Factors Affecting Alcohol Consumption in Black Women. Part II

Abstract

An eight-variable model for understanding and predicting alcohol consumption in a sample of 289 African American women is evaluated using a structural equation methodology. We found that life events, physical health problems, and internalized racialism played important roles in accounting for variance in alcohol consumption. Marital status did not have the predicted inverse effect on alcohol consumption. While religious orientation did not have the expected inverse effect on alcohol consumption, it had an unexpected direct effect on internalized racialism, which had a direct effect on alcohol consumption. We found that the effects of socioeconomic status and developmental status on alcohol consumption were mediated through other variables specified in the model. Overall the model, which provided partial to complete support for five of eight hypotheses, provided a statistically adequate fit.

A holistic model for understanding and predicting depressive symptoms in african-american women

“…That cultural identity, net the effects of life events, social support, religious orientation, marital status, and physical health problems, should have significant impact on depressive symptoms suggests the relative importance of this underinvestigated variable. This implication is consistent with results of other studies which indicate that internalized racialism is inversely related to marital satisfaction (Taylor, 1990) and directly related to alcohol consumption (Taylor & Jackson, 1990b). Negative (and positive) cultural identity among African Americans may play an unsuspectedly important role in health and social issues of a wide range.…”

“…Since the zero-order disattenuated correlation between religious orientation and life events was in the predicted direction ( -.14), the most likely explanation for this unexpected finding is that developmental status, which had opposite effects on religious orientation (.60) and life events ( -.47), spuriously mediated the direct effect of religious orientation on life events (.14). This implication is consistent with a previous application of the model (Taylor & Jackson, 1990b). Alternate Model B, which also accounted for 27% of the variance in depressive symptoms, was associated with a chi square of 146.93, df = 86, p < .05.…”

“…Reliabilities for these two indicators of internalized racialism have been in the .80s. In samples of African Americans, internalized racialism has been found to be directly related to alcohol consumption (Jackson & Taylor, 1990b) and inversely related to marital satisfaction (Taylor, 1990;Taylor & Zhang, in press). Other validation studies using this measure are summarized in Taylor and Grundy (in press).…”

“…To the degree this pattern is replicated (cf. Taylor & Jackson, 1990b), there may be a need to reexamine ideology and praxis of theological traditions within the contemporary Black church.…”

Stigma and racial/ethnic HIV disparities: Moving toward resilience.

“…Gibbons and colleagues theorized that Blacks engage in substance use in part to cope with stress associated with perceived stigma, and that interactions characterized by stigma deplete self-regulatory functioning, which ultimately leads to less self-control to resist drug use. Additionally, internalized stigma associated with race is related to greater alcohol consumption among urban Black women (Taylor & Jackson, 1990).…”