Acculturation, Access, and Alcohol in a Tri‐Ethnic Community1

Gross ethnic differences in excessive drinking and other forms of social‐problem behavior among Indians, Spanish‐Americans, and Anglo‐Americans living in a single Southwestern community, as well as a wide range of within‐group differences in such behavior, serve as the confronting problem. A random sample of all adults in the community was interviewed, using a variety of structured and semistructured procedures. The differential effects of acculturation and economic access on social and psychological pressures for and controls against engaging in deviant behavior among the two minority groups are analyzed for their explanatory power. An initial paradox involving differences in Spanish and Indian response to acculturation is resolved, and implications of the results for general acculturation theory are then drawn.