The developmental trajectory for drinking among African American men has been shown to differ significantly from their female counterparts, as well as from the drinking trajectories of male European Americans. For African American men, heavy drinking is associated with older age (Caetano, 1984; Caetano & Clark, 1998a; Caetano et al., 1998; Herd, 1990), and thus becomes more frequent than what is observed among other groups (i.e., African American women and European American men) as they age. Although somewhat dated, national survey research on heavy drinking found that for African American men, heavy drinking remained steady (although lower than European American levels) for ages 18–49, peaked during the ages 50–59, and did not drop off until the early 60s (Herd, 1990). Others have similarly noted that steady levels of drinking persist into the 50s for African American men, which is found to a much less degree for African American women (Caetano & Clark, 1998a).
