Youth Alcohol Research Articles

Learning from success: implementation & evaluation of a national program

Abstract The WHO - Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) cross national survey, has monitored changes in youth alcohol use throughout the past 3 decades in over 45 countries in Europe and North America. While Israel has usually shown relatively low rates of adolescent smoking, drinking and drug use, the rates of problem drinking increased dramatically during the years 1994-2009. The rate of binge drinking in P30D for teens aged 11-15 tripled from 6.2% in 1994 to 20.6% in 2009. Findings were cleverly used to impact policy. The scientific evidence were disseminated to the press and targeted parliament and cabinet members. Consequently, the government funded the development and implementation of a comprehensive, long-term national program to reduce alcohol drinking among youth. The program was funded and implemented in three consecutive stages: 2010-12, 2012-14 and 2014-16 and was coordinated by the Israel Anti-Drug Authority. HBSC data were used as the monitoring system of the program. Activities included: implementing a comprehensive national strategy, building partnerships with relevant agencies, developing consistent and coherent messages, implementing national media campaigns, passing and enforcing a host of new legislation, implementing a wide variety of age and culture-specific school programs, and implementing community-based interventions. HBSC findings show that as a result of this national intensive program, binge drinking by Israeli youth dropped from 20.6% in 2009 to 12.4% in 2011, to 10.7% in 2014 and finally to 6.2% in 2019. All in all, binge drinking dropped to about one third of its magnitude in 2009, prior to the implementation of the national program. The paper discusses the unique role of HBSC in identifying a critical increase in binge drinking, influencing decision makers, providing base-line data for the national program and serving as its evaluation system.

Does Adolescent Alcohol Harm Minimization Policy Exposure Reduce Adult Alcohol Problems? A Cross-National Comparison

PurposeAdolescent alcohol use carries risks for problem behaviors, such as injury and school dropout, as well as increases the risk of alcohol dependence later on, making public health approaches that curb youth alcohol use a key concern. The present study uses a two-state comparison of alcohol-related policies in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, U.S. (harm minimization in Australia and zero tolerance in the U.S.) to examine whether youth alcohol use in each state is related to alcohol-related problems in young adulthood. MethodsData were drawn from the International Youth Development Study (N = 1,965) that followed youth in Victoria and Washington states from age 13 years, with follow-up at ages 14 and 15 years, and then again at age 25 years. Multiple-group structural equation modeling was used to test whether early alcohol use was equally related to alcohol problems (measured by the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) at age 25 years and whether the relationship was moderated by family and school environments that were tolerant of youth drinking and by gender. ResultsYouth in Victoria reported greater rates of alcohol use compared with youth in Washington, as well as more permissive family and school environments. Early alcohol use was equally associated with Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test problems at age 25 years in the two nations, and none of the moderators significantly changed the association. ConclusionsResults suggest that harm minimization policies adopted in Victoria are less effective at reducing alcohol problems during young adulthood compared with the stricter zero-tolerance approaches adopted in Washington State.

Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Alcohol Use: Within-Group Differences in Associations with Internalized Stigma and Victimization.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth are more likely to use alcohol than their heterosexual cisgender peers. At the same time, SGM youth experience sexuality- and gender identity-specific stressors known to exacerbate negative health outcomes. Though scholars have established a link between minority stressors (e.g., internalized stigma and victimization) and increased alcohol use for SGM youth as a whole, there is little indication of whether internalized stigma and victimization are more strongly associated with alcohol use for specific groups of SGM youth. A United States sample of 11,811 racially and geographically diverse 13-17 year old SGM youth was used to employ a series of gender-stratified multivariable regression models to examine the association among internalized stigma, victimization, and alcohol-related behaviors, and whether they differed for specific groups of sexual minority youth. Sexual orientation moderated several associations between sexual minority stressors (i.e., victimization and stigma) and youth's alcohol use (i.e., recent use and heavy episodic drinking) across models stratified by gender (i.e., male, female, and non-binary). For example, bisexual boys had stronger associations between SGM-specific victimization and alcohol use frequency and heavy episodic drinking relative to gay boys; conversely, victimization and alcohol use frequency were more weakly associated among bisexual girls relative to lesbian/gay girls. Pansexual girls showed weaker associations between internalized stigma and alcohol use frequency compared to lesbian/gay girls. This paper demonstrates who among SGM youth are more likely to engage in alcohol-related behaviors as a function of differential forms of SGM-related victimization and stigma. These findings can inform substance use interventions that are tailored to youth of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.

Increased mental health and psychosocial risks in LGBQ youth accessing Australian youth AOD services

Research has consistently demonstrated that young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) show greater levels of psychosocial risk than general cohorts of young people. Young people engaged with youth alcohol and other drug (AOD) services are some of the most marginalized of all young people. Hitherto research is yet to investigate if young people identifying as LGBQ fare worse in these psychosocial domains than their non-LGBQ co-clients within AOD services. This study compared outcomes for 103 matched pairs of LGBQ identified and non-LGBQ identified young people (N = 206) using youth AOD services in Australia from a youth needs census. The results indicated that youth identifying as LGBQ reported more family dysfunction; and had experienced more violent crime, sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; and accumulated trauma than the non-LGBQ group. They had significantly more substance related harms, greater polysubstance use, and greater severity in their substance use. The LGBQ group also demonstrated poorer psychological health, quality of life, and were more likely to report a history of mental illness, and non-suicidal self-injury according to their youth worker. Overall these data indicate a need to direct more support to this particularly at risk group of young people.

Youth Assets, Neighborhood Factors, and Alcohol Use: A Study of Health Disparities

Objective: We identified possible health disparities in prospective associations among youth assets, neighborhood environmental variables, and alcohol use. Methods: Participants were 1111 racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse youth and their parents. Seventeen youth assets assessed at Waves 1 to 4 and neighborhood factors at Wave 1 to 4 were used to make a prospective prediction of youth alcohol use at Waves 2-5 while considering youth race/ethnicity and parental income. We assessed youth alcohol use as alcohol use in the past 30 days and binge drinking in the past 6 months. We analyzed our data using marginal logistic regression. Results: Assets were prospectively associated with the absence of alcohol use in the past 30 days and binge drinking in the past 6 months for black, white and Hispanic youth, and for youth in most income categories (adjusted odds ratio range = 1.5-2.9). There were few statistically significant associations between the neighborhood environment and alcohol use outcomes. Conclusion: The results do not support the notion that the protective effects of youth assets and neighborhood environmental factors from youth alcohol use differ by youth race/ethnicity or parental income.

Drinking comfortably? Gender and affect among Danish pre-partiers

BackgroundThe aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between youthful drinking practices and gender within the domestic pre-party (prior to a night out), an arena, which has been relatively ignored in existing qualitative research on youthful alcohol use. An examination of the relationships between gender and drinking practices in this context is important for three reasons. First, pre-parties are associated with heavy drinking, which has traditionally been associated with masculinity. Second, because pre-drinking takes place in the private sphere of the home, it is therefore ‘controlled’ in terms of who can participate and hence what precisely is the gender composition. Third, whilst being located in the private sphere of the home, pre-party practices are nevertheless informed by the (hyper) gendered environments of public drinking spaces in the Night-Time Economy (NTE), most dominantly mainstream clubs and bars. We suggest that such characteristics allow for the emergence of specific gendered relationships, activities and affectivities, thereby demarcating the pre-party as a particular gendered drinking space. MethodsWe draw on narrative data from 140 in-depth face-to-face interviews with young Danish alcohol users between 18–25 years of age. The interviews were part of a large-scale research project on the gendered aspects of youthful alcohol use and intoxication. Theoretically, we draw on a combination of the ‘doing gender’ paradigm (West & Zimmerman, 1987) and affect theoretical notions on (un)comfortability (Ahmed, 2014). We propose that these perspectives mark out the pre-party as a particularly gendered drinking space. ResultsWhile our analysis supports the observation of existing qualitative studies, that pre-partying is not merely motivated by the possibility of becoming intoxicated in a cheap and un-surveilled way before going out, we especially argue that pre-partying is fueled by a desire for 'comfortability', which seems almost impossible to disassemble from the gendering that pre-partying also entails. Our analysis therefore contributes to the ongoing academic discussion around the relationship between ‘intoxicated femininity’ and ‘intoxicated masculinity’ by suggesting that we need to take the affective implications of young people’s (gendered) drinking practices into account in a thorough discussion of the relationship between youthful alcohol use and gender.

Patient-level factors are more salient than a legislation prohibiting minors in bars in predicting unintentional injury hospitalizations

BackgroundAlcohol related homicide, suicide and aggravated assault represent the largest costs for the state of Illinois. Previous research has examined the impact of some alcohol-related policies on youth alcohol use and alcohol-related harm in the United States but findings have been mixed. To our knowledge, no study has provided a detailed epidemiology of the relationship between the impacts of alcohol policies on unintentional injury in Illinois. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine whether a legislation that prohibit minors under 21 years old in establishments that serve alcohol is more salient than individual level factors in predicting hospitalization for traumatic unintentional injuries.MethodsA retrospective observational study of data abstracted from 6,139 patients aged 10 to 19 hospitalized in Illinois Level I and Level II trauma centers. Patient data from 2006 to 2015 was linked with the city-level alcohol-related legislation (n = 514 cities). The response variable was whether a patient tested positive or negative for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at the time of admission. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were conducted to model the patient and city level legislation effect of having a positive BAC test result on hospitalizations after adjusting for the legislation and patient factors.ResultsAfter adjustment, patients aged 15 to 19 and white patients who tested positive for BAC at the time of admission had the greater odds of hospitalization for traumatic alcohol-related unintentional injuries compared to patients who had a negative BAC test result. However, odds of hospitalization decreased for female patients and for those with private insurance, and over time, but a significant decrease in such hospitalizations occurred during 2010, 2014 and 2015. The alcohol-related legislation of interest was not a significant predictor of traumatic alcohol-related unintentional injury hospitalization.ConclusionsPatient-level covariates were significant predictors of traumatic alcohol-related unintentional injury hospitalization; an alcohol-related legislation may not reduce hospitalizations for young patients aged 10 to 19. Therefore, to prevent underage drinking and consequences, interventions should target sex/gender, race/ethnicity and focus on both individual and environmental strategies.

With a Spirit that Understands: Reflections on a Long-term Community Science Initiative to End Suicide in Alaska.

This retrospective analysis of a long-term community-based participatory research (CBPR) process spans over two decades of work with Alaska Native communities. A call to action from Alaska Native leadership to create more effective strategies to prevent and treat youth suicide and alcohol misuse risk initiated a response from university researchers. This CBPR process transformed into a collaborative effort to indigenously drive and develop solutions through research. The People Awakening project started our team on this translational and transformational pathway through community intervention science in the Central Yup'ik region of Alaska. We examine more deeply the major episodes and their successes and struggles in maintaining a long-term research relationship between university researchers and members of Yup'ik Alaska Native communities. We explore ways that our CBPR relationship has involved negotiation and engagement with power and praxis, to deepen and focus attention to knowledge systems and relational elements. This paper examines these deeper, transformative elements of our CBPR relationship that spans histories, cultures, and systems. Our discussion shares vignettes from academic and community perspectives to describe process in a unique collaboration, reaching to sometimes touch upon rare ground in emotions, tensions, and triumphs over the course of a dozen grants and twice as many years. We conclude by noting how there are points where, in a long-term CBPR relationship, transition out of emergence into coalescing and transformation can occur.

Are There Gender, Racial, or Religious Denominational Differences in Religiosity’s Effect on Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking Among Youth in the United States? A Propensity Score Weighting Approach

Background: Alcohol use/misuse is a prevalent health issue among youth and may lead to adverse consequences. Religiosity has been identified as a protective factor against alcohol use/misuse among youth. Identifying moderators in the religiosity-alcohol relationship has important implications for intervention development. Objective: This study aims to examine whether gender, race, or religious denomination moderate the religiosity-alcohol relationship. Method: This study overcame previous studies’ limitations by using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample and robust analytical methods (N = 1969). This study used the propensity score weighting method to control for a large number of confounders. Propensity score weights were estimated using Generalized Boosted Models. Results: Findings indicate that gender and religious denomination might not moderate the religiosity-alcohol relationship, whereas racial difference was present. Among White youth, religiosity was found to have a buffering effect against alcohol use (average treatment effect [ATE] = –0.57, CI.95 = –0.83, –0.32) and binge drinking (ATE = 0.54, CI.95 = 0.38, 0.71). However, among non-White youth, religiosity was not found to have an effect on alcohol use (ATE = 0.08, CI.95 = –0.31, 0.47) or binge drinking (ATE = 1.07, CI.95 = 0.68, 1.64). Conclusions: Findings suggest that preventions/interventions of youth alcohol involvement that are religiously based may not need to adapt their efforts based on youth’s gender or religious denominations. More importantly, when addressing alcohol use/misuse issue among White American youth, religious and faith-based organizations, youth religious group leaders, and clergy should be included in the prevention/intervention efforts.

The effects of e-cigarette minimum legal sale age laws on youth substance use.

We use difference-in-differences models and individual-level data from the national and state Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System from 2005 to 2015 to examine the effects of e-cigarette minimum legal sale age (MLSA) laws on youth cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and marijuana use. Our results suggest that these laws increased youth smoking participation by about one percentage point and approximately half of the increased smoking participation could be attributed to smoking initiation. We find little evidence of higher cigarette smoking persisting beyond the point at which youth age out of the laws. Our results also show little effect of the laws on youth drinking, binge drinking, and marijuana use. Taking these together, our findings suggest a possible unintended effect of e-cigarette MLSA laws-rising cigarette use in the short term while youth are restricted from purchasing e-cigarettes.

Adolescent mental health and unemployment over the lifespan: Population evidence from Sweden

RationaleSymptoms of mental health problems have been shown to predict adverse labour market outcomes including unemployment, but no studies have used sibling models to examine the relationship between clinically diagnosed psychiatric conditions in adolescence and subsequent unemployment. ObjectiveThis study used extensive Swedish registry data to investigate the link between psychiatric conditions diagnosed during military conscription and unemployment over two decades. Further, we identified whether this relation was amplified during an economic downturn and tested whether it was affected by adjustment for unobserved family characteristics using sibling fixed-effects models. MethodPsychiatric conditions were diagnosed by psychologists and psychiatrists at military conscription in sample of 929,191 Swedish men (mean age = 18.4 years) between 1969 and 1989. The average number of days unemployed per year was observed from 1992 to 2012, using the records of the Swedish Public Employment Services. ResultsAfter adjustment for physical health and childhood socioeconomic status those diagnosed with any psychiatric condition experienced approximately an additional 10 days per year unemployment compared to others. Alcohol (16 days unemployment) and other substance use disorders (17 days) were the strongest predictors of exposure to future unemployment, followed by personality disorders (10 days), neurotic and adjustment conditions (nine days), and depressive disorders (six days). Family background factors accounted for approximately half of the observed relationship between mental health conditions and unemployment. Psychiatric conditions interacted with macroeconomic conditions such that those with pre-existing alcohol-related, and neurotic and adjustment disorders were disproportionately more likely to become unemployed following the 1990s crisis in Sweden. ConclusionsAdolescent mental health conditions forecast an elevated risk of unemployment, which endures over the life course and is amplified in times of economic uncertainty. Investment in youth mental health services and alcohol and substance use prevention programs may yield economic benefits by reducing unemployment.

Community level approach to youth alcohol related risk

PurposeYoung people drinking to extreme drunkenness is a source of concern for policy makers and health promoters. There are a variety of community groups who appear to respond to the alcohol-related problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the working practices and relationships among local community groups as part of the pre-intervention context-assessment process.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the narratives of nine community workers and ten venue managers the authors examine the community level approach to inform the choice of interventions to reduce risky drinking practices and community wide alcohol-related harm.FindingsThere was considerable agreement across the community workers and venue managers about the nature of risk for young people in the night time economy (NTE). Two central themes of “perceived risk” and “management of risk” emerged from the data. Further, the community workers and venue managers identified different high-risk locations and strategies to improve their ability meet the needs of young people experiencing risk in the NTE. The local authorities, community organisations and night time operators adopted a broad proactive and connected approach to develop a coherent strategy to achieve new measures of safety in the NTE.Originality/valueApplying the social ecological model to provide a framework for the understanding of the social, environmental and political factors that influence alcohol use in young people.

Expectativas del consumo de alcohol y consumo de alcohol en jóvenes de áreas rural y urbana

Background: The consumption of alcohol is among the main health problems worldwide due to its physical, psychological and social consequences, it has been identified that the expectations of alcohol consumption are a variable that can be related to the alcohol consumption. Objective: To identify the expectations towards alcohol consumption, to determine the relationship between expectations and alcohol consumption among young people in rural and urban areas. Methodology: The design of the study was descriptive correlational, comparative; random sampling. The sample consisted of 169 young people from the urban area and 133 young people from the rural area of the state of Nuevo Leon. Results: The expectations towards the consumption of alcohol in the subscale of disinhibition (U = 9573.00; p = 0,023) and in the subscale of increase of sexuality (U = 9724.00; p = 0,041) it was different within the to area, it is characterized by greater medians and medians among young people in rural areas; the expectations of alcohol consumption reported positive and significant correlation with the harmful consumption of alcohol in rural youth (rs= 0,435; p < 0,001) and young people in urban areas (rs= 0,290; p < 0,001). Conclusion: Due to the problem that consolidates the alcohol consumption in young people, it is important to carry out more research that allows the design of effective strategies to attend to specific populations

Problematic familial alcohol use and adolescents’ heavy drinking: can conditions in school compensate for the increased risk of heavy drinking among adolescents from families with problematic alcohol use?

ABSTRACTThe aim of the present study is to assess the association between problematic alcohol consumption in the family and youth alcohol consumption and to explore the extent to which this association is moderated by conditions in school in terms of schools’ degree of student focus. We use data from the Stockholm School Survey performed among 10,757 ninth grade students and the Stockholm Teacher Survey performed among 2,304 teachers in the same schools. Multilevel logistic regressions were performed. The results showed that problematic alcohol consumption in the family was associated with a higher likelihood of heavy drinking among adolescents. The association was weaker in schools with a strong student focus, indicating a compensatory effect of conditions in school.

Homophobic Bullying and Sexual Minority Youth Alcohol Use: Do Sex and Race/Ethnicity Matter?

Sexual minority youth (SMY) are more likely to use alcohol than their heterosexual peers, yet a lack of research on within-group differences and modifiable mechanisms has hindered efforts to address alcohol use disparities. The purpose of the current study was to examine differences in the mediating role of homophobic bullying on the association between sexual orientation identity and drinking frequency and heavy episodic drinking frequency by sex and race/ethnicity. We used data from a subsample of 20,744 youth in seven states from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a population-based data set of 9-12th grade high school students in the United States. We included youth who self-identified as male or female; heterosexual, lesbian/gay, bisexual, or unsure of their sexual orientation identity; and White, Black, or Latino. Within-group comparisons demonstrated that SMY alcohol use disparities were concentrated among Latino bisexual and unsure youth. All subgroups of SMY at the intersection of race/ethnicity and sex were more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to report homophobic bullying. Homophobic bullying mediated alcohol use disparities for some, but not all, subgroups of SMY. Homophobic bullying is a serious risk factor for SMY alcohol use, although youths' multiple identities may differentiate degrees of risk. Sexual orientation identity-related disparities in alcohol use among Latino, bisexual, and unsure youth were not fully attenuated when adjusted for homophobic bullying, which suggests that there may be additional factors that contribute to rates of alcohol use among these specific subgroups of SMY.

Adolescent Adversity and Concurrent Tobacco, Alcohol, and Marijuana Use.

Objective Adolescent health behaviors may be linked to elevated morbidity and mortality in adulthood. This study examines relationships between broad concepts for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent substance use outcomes among youth participating in a statewide, school-based survey. Methods Data are from 8th, 9th, and 11th graders participating in the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey (N = 126,868). Logistic regression was used to determine whether 10 types of adversity related to abuse, household dysfunction, and food and housing hardship, and 7 types of bully victimization were associated with youth tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use after adjustment for demographics, risk perceptions, academic engagement, parent communication, self-esteem, and health perceptions. Results Individual and cumulative measures for adversity were significantly associated with youth increased odds of early substance initiation, binge drinking, and daily tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use, even with adjustment for demographics and other contextual factors. Conclusion Findings suggest a significant link between broad concepts for ACEs and adolescent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Consideration of information related to ACEs may inform timing and content of substance use prevention and intervention activities directed at youth.

Statistical analysis of a survey about diffusion of binge drinking and drunkorexia among students in Palermo

Youth alcohol consumption is a major global public health concern. Previous reviews have concluded that exposure to alcohol marketing was associated with drinking initiation and higher alcohol consumption among youth. From January to May 2017, a survey has been conducted through administration of questionnaires about the diffusion of Binge Drinking and Drunkorexia among the students of Palermo. Test was administered, during school time, to 2331 students between the ages of 13 and 20. Regarding the analysis of the questionnaires, 97,8% of student declares to have drunk at least once: their first taste of alcoholic drink happens at the age of thirteen/fourteen. They prefer to drink at the disco or pub (48% disco; 22% pub) on Friday and Saturday evening (92%). 52% of students also declare to associate alcohol to cigarette smoking. Another important statistic is that 736 girls and 61 boys declare to prefer to restrict food intake in order to consume greater quantities of alcohol and to avoid weight gain. In order to evaluate youth alcohol consumption in a different contest, it was created an online survey thanks to Google forms. This study involved 500 young people from Palermo between the ages of 19 and 30. The extrapolation of data confirmed the same results of the questionnaires on paper. In this test, however, it was also evaluated the spreading of drink-driving (68,5%). The present survey suggests that there is an expansion of such practices in young population. In conclusion, it appears necessary to adopt measures of information and prevention to reduce territorial diffusion.

A systematic review: Candidate gene and environment interaction on alcohol use and misuse among adolescents and young adults.

Youth drinking is a pervasive public health concern with serious negative developmental implications. Candidate gene and environment interaction studies (cGxE) show that environmental effects on drinking behaviors may differ by individuals' genotypes. Yet little is known about whether genetic and environmental effects on drinking behaviors are developmentally specific. This systematic review evaluated 42 cGxE studies of drinking in adolescence and young adulthood. Although there are mixed findings, studies of cGxE effects involving DRD4, 5-HTTLPR, DRD2, and OPRM1 genotypes showed relatively consistent patterns. The effects of under-controlled environments (eg, low levels of parental monitoring) on early and middle adolescent drinking appeared to differ across DRD2 or OPRM1 genotypes. Effects of alcohol-facilitating environments (eg, heavy drinking peers) on late adolescent and young adult drinking appeared to differ across DRD4 or OPRM1 genotypes. Interactions between 5-HTTLPR genotype with stressful environments (eg, negative life events) were found throughout adolescence and young adulthood, although there were some inconsistencies regarding the risk-conferring allele. There was limited evidence for other cGxE effects due to the small number of studies. This review suggests that GxE findings may advance our knowledge regarding which developmentally specific conditions result in the expression of candidate genes that influence youth alcohol use and misuse. However, since a significant number of studies had small sample sizes and most studies had small effect sizes, findings need replication across independent studies with large samples. (Am J Addict 2018;XX:1-19).

P72 - Investigating Dietary and Physical Activity Patterns Among Hmong American Youth: A Cultural Perspective

Background (Background, Rationale, Prior Research, and/or Theory): While obesity and type-2 diabetes rates have risen among Hmong, limited research has investigated their nutritional status. It is important to investigate Hmong dietary and physical activity patterns so that timely nutritional interventions may be planned. Objective: We investigated the factors that influence dietary and physical activity patterns among Hmong American youth (14-25-year-olds) in the Sacramento region. Study Design, Setting, Participants, Intervention: Eight focus groups (n = 44) were conducted. Each focus group lasted for 60–90 minutes with 4 to 7 youth per group. Participants completed a brief questionnaire regarding smoking, alcohol, and dietary and physical activity behaviors adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Surveillance Survey. Focus groups were audio taped and transcribed verbatim; transcriptions were analyzed for themes and discrepancies were noted and resolved. Outcome Measures and Analysis: Descriptive data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software (version 24). Significance level was set at P < .05. Results: Twenty-nine female and 15 male youth participated in the study, mean (±SD) age was 19 ± 3 years. Most youth (84%) were born in the United States, seven (16%) were born in either Laos or Thailand. Questionnaire results indicated that 26% of youth reported eating fried foods 4–6 times during the past week. Furthermore, 51% did not eat green salad and 14% did not consume any fruit during the past week. Focus group data suggested that preference for culturally familiar foods made youth's intake of vegetables challenging. While parental influences negatively influenced female youth's physical activity patterns, cultural expectations to fit in appeared to affect male youth's alcohol consumption. Conclusions and Implications: Cultural factors affected the youths' health and well-being. Future nutrition intervention among Hmong youth is recommended to be culturally-specific with an understanding of parental influences and/or culturally-driven barriers to healthy living. More data with a larger sample size is needed to gain an understanding about Hmong health in this region. Funding: Probationary Faculty Development Grant Program at the California State University, Sacramento.

Liability of Youthful Alcohol Misuse

Liability of Youthful Alcohol Misuse