While some national surveys find that African American and Hispanic men are more likely to report dependence symptoms and negative social consequences of drinking (Caetano and Clark, 1998b; Greenfield, et al., 2003; Herd, 1994), other data indicate that rates of alcohol dependence and abuse (the latter capturing, in part, social problems associated with drinking) are roughly comparable or even elevated among whites, relative to blacks and Hispanics (Grant, et al., 2004). Discrepancies might reflect methodological differences across studies; for instance, in how drinking problems are operationalized (Midanik, et al., 2007), and in the choice of population to determine prevalence rates (Greenfield and Kerr, 2008). While it is important to examine overall rates within the general population of drinkers and non-drinkers, racial/ethnic differences in abstinence can result in distorted estimates of disparities in drinking problems, since problems can only occur among those who drink. And while summary indices are valuable for assessing the overall impact of alcohol use on diverse aspects of people’s lives, measures that distinguish social and dependence-related problems are important for the purposes of prevention, as the etiology of these problems may differ.
