Results partially support Zapolski et al.’s (2014) conceptual model for both Blacks and Latinos, suggesting that heavy drinking may be especially harmful when drinkers are poor and prejudice and unfair treatment a frequent reality. Poor people are particularly likely to be unemployed and, if employed, hold hourly jobs with little flexibility (Blank, 1998), and either may result in more social consequences and untreated health problems for a given level of heavy drinking. Similarly, both class-based and racial/ethnic prejudice may generate greater social consequences, as a result of biases, for poor minority drinkers, particularly when they also reside in poor neighborhoods (Herd, 1994). Studies have found that, even at comparable levels of substance use, Blacks are more likely than Whites to be reported to authorities, mandated to treatment, arrested for drunkenness and drug possession, and sent to prison rather than treatment (Chasnoff et al., 1990; D’Avanzo et al., 2000; Polcin, 1999).
