Racial/Ethnic Differences in Psychometric Properties of Alcohol-Related Behaviors in the USA

• Published in: Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities 2023-08, Vol.10 (4), p.1978-1984
• Main Authors: Dawson, Darius B., Klonoff, Elizabeth A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adolescent; African Americans; Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology; Alcohol Drinking - ethnology; Alcohol use; Alcohols; Asian - statistics & numerical data; Asian Americans; Behavior; Black or African American - statistics & numerical data; Child; Confirmatory factor analysis; Cultural differences; Drinks; Drug abuse; Drug use; Epidemiology; Ethnic differences; Ethnic factors; Ethnic groups; Ethnicity - statistics & numerical data; Evaluation; Factor analysis; Female; Group identity; Health disparities; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic or Latino - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Invariance; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental health; Minority & ethnic groups; Polls & surveys; Psychometrics; Quality of Life Research; Quantitative psychology; Racial Groups - ethnology; Racial Groups - statistics & numerical data; Self report; Social Inequality; Social Structure; Substance abuse; Substance use; Surveys; Teenagers; United States - epidemiology; White - statistics & numerical data
• ISSN: 2197-3792; 2196-8837
• DOI: 10.1007/s40615-022-01379-3

Objective Alcohol-related behaviors are often examined using surveys assessing participants’ self-report of attitudes/actions. However, racial/ethnic differences exist in scale construction and evaluation, and surveys evaluating alcohol behaviors lack invariance across ethnic groups. These dissimilarities may be due to deep-rooted differences in ethnic classification of unhealthy substance use behaviors. Methods We examined factor structure of “Number of days per month drank alcohol in past 12 months,” “Number of days had one or more drinks in past 30 days,” and “Number of days had four/five or more drinks in past 30 days,” administered during the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Factorial invariance was examined across 12- to 17-year-old White, Black/African American, Asian American, and Hispanic/Latinx boys and girls endorsing alcohol use. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis statistically determined whether the factor structure was invariant across groups. Results The alcohol scale lacked invariance across all groups, indicating racial/ethnic group identification is related to alcohol-related cognitions. Conclusions Psychometric properties of scales assessing alcohol-related behaviors generalized across racial/ethnic groups require evaluation.