NCJ Number
213845
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2006 Pages: 241-260
Date Published
April 2006
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study probed risk factors for alcohol use among men aged 15 to 24 years living in Haiti.
Abstract
Only a minority of the young Haitian men in this study had ever abused alcohol. Several factors differentiated alcohol users from abstainers among the Haitian sample, including lifetime smoking, multiple sexual partners, witnessing interparental conflict during childhood, disruption of parental monitoring, and residing in communities with high levels of youth drinking. Risk factors associated with regular alcohol use were out-of-school employment and residing with an adult with a history of drunkenness. The findings suggest that the focus of alcohol prevention strategies should be on community and home factors that contribute to the problem. Moreover, given the high prevalence of HIV infection in the Haitian region, ongoing interventions that address risky sexual behavior should also include strategies for decreasing other risk-related behaviors like alcohol consumption. Data were drawn from a 2000 Haiti survey focused on the fertility, mortality, family planning, health, and service utilization of a representative sample of the reproductive-aged population. Multivariate analyses were employed to examine the data. Future studies should continue probing factors that contribute to adolescent drinking, such as the role of anger and anxiety in the decision to consume alcohol. Figure, table, references