A second concern of the current study was whether disparities in problems occur independently of consumption and drinking pattern, and where, specifically, across a range of drinking levels are disparities most apparent. Here, we report two important findings. First, even after rigorously adjusting for differences in heavy episodic consumption and pattern, racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol-related problems are still apparent. The current study thus replicates earlier findings by Herd, Jones-Webb and others, and suggests that racial disparities in alcohol-related problems are robust over time. Second, we observed that disparities in alcohol-related problems were greatest among those reporting little or no heavy drinking. These findings are similar to those of Jones-Webb and colleagues, but differ from Herd’s observation of a widening racial gap in consequences and dependence symptoms at higher frequencies of heavy drinking. Given that Herd’s results are based on data collected more than two decades ago, it could be that temporal shifts in drinking behavior and attitudes account for these differences. It has been suggested that the movement towards a “drier” drinking culture in the U.S., together with the growth
