Not only does this subset of severely impoverished African American men appear to drink more than their counterparts, but problems from consumption appear to be more pronounced for them. African American men in lower socioeconomic classes (i.e., greater than 20% below the poverty line) were significantly more likely than comparably poor African American women (and European American men) to report greater numbers of negative drinking consequences, including problems in areas such as legal charges, finances, health, family, and work (Jones-Webb et al., 1997a). Others have reported similar findings, suggesting that African Americans who are both male and have lower income are most likely to engage in heavy or problematic drinking behaviors and experience the most problems related to use (James & Johnson, 1996; Wallace, 1999a, 1999b; Welte & Barnes, 1992). To provide a further context for our theoretical explanation of this set of findings, we next consider the joint effects of age and sex with respect to developmental trajectories of drinking.
