Measurement of Alcohol Use at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU)

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that African-American students attending HBCUs consume less alcohol and experience fewer negative consequences compared to students attending other public colleges and universities (Fowler, 2001). Factors such as religion (Kapner, 2008), alcohol-free campus policies (Wechsler, Lee, Gledhill-Hoyt, & Nelson, 2001), the HBCU environment (Kapner, 2008; Tyree, 2008), and ethnic pride/identity (Pugh & Bry, 2007) have been proposed to protect this population from heavy alcohol consumption. In the current study, motives for alcohol use were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between ethnic pride and various measures of alcohol use and related problems in a sample of African, Black, and Caribbean/West Indian American HBCU students. The study also sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of measures typically developed and used with primarily Caucasian clinical populations and/or adolescents to evaluate drinking motives (e.g., DMQ-R), alcohol consumption (e.g., DDQ), and related negative consequences (e.g., CAPS-r and YAACQ), but not validated for use with African-American college students. Results suggested the existence of full mediation, where students endorsing increased exploration of ethnic identity reported decreased alcohol consumption and related consequences, but only when mediated by decreased drinking motives related to coping with depression. Psychometric properties (e.g., internal reliability and concurrent associations) were similar to those reported by other studies using primarily Caucasian college students, suggesting that these measures are appropriate for use with African, Black, and Caribbean/West Indian American HBCU students.