When comparing drinking levels among African Americans, African American women are consistently found to report lower levels of use and higher rates of abstinence compared to African American men (e.g., Caetano & Clark, 1998a; Ford et al., 2007). For example, Caetano and Clark (1998a) found that 21% of African American men compared to 10% of African American women reported drinking at least one drink in the past year. African American women also reported higher rates of abstinence (i.e., drink less than once a year or have never drunk: 55%) compared to African American men (36%). Similar findings have been reported using either convenience samples or large, representative national samples (Ford et al., 2007; Parker, Weaver, & Calhoun, 1995; SAMHSA, 2010, 2011). There is certainly heterogeneity in the drinking behavior of African American women, and researchers have begun to examine predictors and risk for alcoholism and substance abuse within this specific population (e.g., Curtis-Boles & Jenkins-Monroe, 2000). Nonetheless, African American men are, as a whole, at greater risk for problem drinking than are African American women.
