Research & Resources

In this study, researchers examined protective factors across individual, family, school, peer, and cultural domains of the social ecology that might attenuate the relationship between perceived discrimination and risky drinking among American Indian adolescents. Risky drinking was examined in the context of demographic variables, alcohol use frequency, perceived discrimination, one protective factor (religiosity, parental monitoring, peer disapproval of alcohol use, school engagement, and ethnic identity), and one two-way interaction between perceived discrimination and the protective factor. Prevalence of risky drinking among lifetime drinkers was 40.1%. Positive associations between perceived discrimination and risky drinking were found in all models. Parental monitoring had a negative association with risky drinking. Religiosity was the only statistically significant moderator, indicating that religiosity weakened the relation between perceived discrimination and risky drinking. Researchers proposed that religiosity might be an important protective factor that could help guide efforts to prevent risky drinking in the face of discrimination among American Indian adolescents.

This paper, “Protective factors in the relationship between perceived discrimination and risky drinking among American Indian adolescents,” was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and published in the journal Drug and alcohol dependence.