Alcohol and Indian Youth: Social and Psychological Correlates and Prevention

Abstract

This paper relates psychosocial correlates to prevention. Young native American heavy alcohol users (ages 12 to 16) were matched with non-users. Alcohol users did not have more emotional problems, did not experience less alienation, or did not feel less self-confident or less socially accepted than non-users, but did use other drugs and were more deviant. Alcohol users came more often from broken families, felt less family caring and had fewer family sanctions against substance use, had poorer school adjustment, had less hope for the future, and had friends encouraging alcohol and drug use. Prevention programs should start very early and should focus on increasing family strength, improving school adjustment, providing opportunities for the future, breaking up deviant peer clusters and building peer clusters that discourage alcohol and drug use.