In addition to comparative rates of dependence symptoms and health consequences related to use, African Americans appear to have a disproportionate rate of alcohol related problems from drinking (Caetano, 1997; Grant, 1997; Herd, 1994a Jones-Webb, 1998; Mulia, Ye, Zemore, & Greenfield, 2008; Mulia et al., 2009; US Department of Health and Human Services, 1995; Wallace, 1999b). Jones-Webb and colleagues (1995) found that relative to European Americans, African Americans experienced more chronic alcohol-related problems, which were defined by the authors as both concrete drinking problems arising in various areas of the person’s life, such as financial, health, family or relatives, work, legal, etc., and alcohol dependence symptoms, as well as an increase in the percentage and magnitude of the problems across time. Mulia and colleagues (2009) also found higher rates of negative social consequences from drinking and of alcohol dependence symptoms among African Americans than among European Americans, at almost all levels of drinking, with the most pronounced differences observed at low levels of drinking. Specifically, they found that African Americans who reported low to moderate levels of heavy drinking were
