Family Influences on Alcohol Abuse and Other Problem Behaviors Among Black and White Adolescents in a General Population Sample

Abstract

There is a lack of systematic research on family influences on the development of drinking patterns of Black and White adolescents. These issues are examined in an ongoing longitudinal study using a representative household sample of 699 adolescents, ages 13 to 16 at Time 1, as well as their parents, in metropolitan Buffalo, New York. Black families were oversampled, yielding data on 210 Black adolescents and their parents. Although Black families have more single-parent households and lower family incomes, Black adolescents have higher abstention rates and lower rates of alcohol abuse and other deviance than White adolescents. The same parenting factors (i.e., support, monitoring, and parent-adolescent communication) are, however, important predictors for both Black and White adolescents. There is evidence that religion is a "protective" factor against alcohol abuse for. Black adolesnts and that White adolescents are more susceptible to peer drinking influences than are Black adolescents.