Does Ethnic Background Influence Drinking Rates? Absolutely

In our research for the book Delaying that First Drink we learned  that people from different races and ethnic backgrounds have different usage and addiction patterns to alcohol. They vary depending upon age as well. 

Here is some of the evidence-based research from NIAAA and other sources:

Who Drinks Most Often? Alcohol use is most frequent in Whites (59.8 percent), lowest for Asian Americans (38.0 percent), and in the middle for Native Americans (47.8 percent), Hispanics (46.3 percent), and African Americans (43.8 percent). 

Who are the Heaviest Adult Drinkers? Native Americans are the heaviest drinkers of any ethnic group at just over 12 percent. Heavy drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on the same occasion for 5 or more of the past 30 days. Whites are next at 8 percent followed by Hispanics at 6 percent.. This data comes from 30-day estimates of drinking provided by the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Who are the Heaviest Young Drinkers? Among young adults ages 18-24, Whites and Native Americans had high rates of current drinking (77 and 70 percent, respectively). African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian young adults had lower rates of drinking at about 60 percent.

Who has the Highest Death Rate from Alcohol? Alcohol-related deaths are higher among African-American males than white males. Alcohol-related deaths rates for white Hispanic Latino men are double that for non-Hispanic white men. The leading cause of death among Native Americans is alcohol-related.

Who has Lower Abstinence Rates? Chinese Americans have higher rates of abstinence from alcohol, while Japanese Americans report higher rates of heavy drinking. With respect to adolescent drinking, African American teens drink less than non-Hispanic white and Latino teens.

Children Who Exercise Self Control in Pre-School Have Less Issues Later

 
The children who struggled with self-control as preschoolers were three times as likely to have problems as young adults. They were more prone to have a criminal record; more likely to be poor or have financial problems; and they were more likely to be single parents.

Self-control keeps us from eating a whole bag of chips or from running up the credit card. A new study says that self-control makes the difference between getting a good job or going to jail — and we learn it in preschool.

"Children who had the greatest self-control in primary school and preschool ages were most likely to have fewer health problems when they reached their 30s," says Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychology at Duke University and King's College London.

Moffitt and a team of researchers studied a group of 1,000 people born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973, tracking them from birth to age 32. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the best evidence yet on the payoff for learning self-discipline early on.

The researchers define self-control as having skills like conscientiousness, self-discipline and perseverance, as well as being able to consider the consequences of actions in making decisions.

This comes right from an NPR story - check out the link.http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133629477/for-kids-self-control-factors-into-future-success

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Moms are the Alcohol Police - Dads Not so Much

Mothers have more influence than dads in convincing kids not to drink young. Why?

According to data pulled from a study done by the Partnership for Drugfree.org in 2009, 73% of moms and only 59% of dads are likely to talk with their kids about alcohol use. That 15% is a pretty big gap. They don't say if this is because dads don't consider drinking alcohol as serious as cigarette smoking or smoking marijuana, both of which dads are more involved in talking about. But it makes sense.

Let's face it, in most families it's the mother who is raising the children. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times my kids' father has proactively raised an issue about our kids lives.

To be fair, that's in the six years since we haven't lived together. I don't know if the moms create their own less involved dad because they handle everything, or because the dads are somewhat hardwired to worry more about other stuff. But whatever it is, moms have more influence on their kids' lives than fathers. Period.

The Partnership did find that fathers are engaged almost as much as moms in monitoring their kids' daily activity, with moms at 91% and dads at 86%. That's certainly a lot higher than 20 years ago.

Moms also tend to be the alcohol police because they are nurturers and big believers in getting help when a child is abusing alcohol. Moms are the listeners, kids share their problems with them more. Plus seventy nine percent of moms think treatment will help, while only 69% of dads do.

The Partnership's conclusion is to keep directing anti-alcohol campaigns to the mothers because that's where they will have the most influence. I say we just all keep talking to our kids.