The current study draws on the combined 2005 and 2010 National Alcohol Surveys to assess the contributions of key candidate mechanisms described above to Black-White and Latino-White disparities in alcohol-related problems overall and at low and moderate levels of consumption, targeting men. We specifically examine the contributions of individual and neighborhood SES, perceived prejudice and unfair treatment (which are conceptually similar to discrimination), drinking norms, and age to these disparities, hypothesizing a substantial reduction in both Black-White and Latino-White disparities when these factors are accounted for. Witbrodt et al. (2014), described above, reported that disparities were minimally affected when accounting for estimated differences in drink size based on race/ethnicity, gender, age, and preferred beverage type, so we do not address drink size here. We also exclude biological factors due to a lack of appropriate measures. Extending Zapolski et al., we have added marital status to our model, recognizing that Black men are more likely than White men to be single (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013), which may lead to a riskier drinking pattern (e.g., higher risk-taking) and hence more problems (see Fig. 1).
