Black-White Adolescent Drinking: The Myth and the Reality

Abstract

Many characterize adolescent drinking in the United States as a social problem. Inferences from research on adult drinking, emphasis on the disorganization of the black family, and public stereotypes suggest that black teenagers would be more heavily involved than white teenagers in drinking behavior. Yet little research has compared black-white teenage drinking. Analysis of 1970 data from a study of adolescent behavior in Atlanta (N = 1383) shows that black teenagers are no more likely and often are less likely than white teenagers to be involved in drinking behavior. When black teenagers do drink, they are more likely than white teenagers to drink within the family. This suggests that black parents supervise the drinking of their children more closely than do white parents. The results cannot be explained by a “trade-off” in which black teenagers have substituted drug involvement for drinking. The results imply that among blacks, adult problem drinking may not be as strongly related as was suspected to those who drink as adolescents and the social contexts in which adolescents learn to drink. Finally, the results suggest that there seems to be an over-emphasis on the disorganization of the black family.