American Indian Adolescent Alcohol Involvement and Ethnic Identification

Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to explore the relationship between American Indian ethnic identification and alcohol involvement. The subject pool was comprised of 202 American Indian adolescents (114 females, 88 males). Measures of ethnic identity, frequency and style of alcohol use, peer alcohol associations, and family sanctions against alcohol were obtained through survey research. Results of the model analysis revealed that while peer alcohol associations significantly predicted alcohol involvement for both males and females, and family sanctions against alcohol were predictive for the females in the sample, ethnic identity did not predict alcohol involvement, directly or indirectly, for either males nor females. Results are discussed in terms of past theoretical explanations of American Indian youth involvement with alcohol.