Alcohol-Related Consequences Among Racial and Ethnic Minority First-Year College Students
Open Access
- Author:
- Plisiewicz, Alexa
- Area of Honors:
- Biobehavioral Health
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Robert J Turrisi, Thesis Supervisor
Helen Marie Kamens, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Alcohol-related consequences
Racial and ethnic minority students
Alcohol
Consequences
College students
First-year college students
Black
Asian
Latinx
Latinx/Hispanic
Multiracial
B-YAACQ
YAACQ
Principal components analysis
Exploratory factor analysis
Female
Male
Drinking - Abstract:
- Background: Risky drinking among college students and the associated negative health consequences are major public health concerns. The Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ) was originally developed and evaluated in a majority White, non-Hispanic/Latinx college student sample. Although the measure has been evaluated among different populations and languages, it has yet to be evaluated among racial and ethnic minority students. The present study conducted a principal components analysis of the B-YAACQ among racial and ethnic minority college students to determine whether the factor structure generalizes to this population. Differences by birth sex were also examined. Methods: The study involved first-year college students from a northeastern university who completed an online survey with items from the B-YAACQ (N=317; 57.7% female; 30.0% Asian, 19.9% Black, 24.0% Multiracial, 26.2% Hispanic/Latinx). The principal component factor analysis focused on reliability. Items were kept for each factor if they met the retention criteria of factor loadings >0.7, inter-item correlations > 0.5, and Cronbach’s alphas > 0.7. The factor structure was then examined separately by males and females. Results: Results revealed two factors for the B-YAACQ: 1) blackout drinking, and 2) sexual consequences (all factor loadings > 0.7; correlations > 0.5; alphas > 0.7). The results were similar when examined by males and females. Conclusions: Blackout drinking and sexual consequences were reliable factors of the B-YAACQ in a sample of racial and ethnic minority students. The blackout drinking factor was reliable in both the original sample of B-YAACQ (majority White, non-Latinx) and the current study sample of racial/ethnic minority students. Sexual consequences were more salient for racial/ethnic minorities (i.e., not a factor in the B-YAACQ). The factor structure found for racial/ethnic minority students held for both males and females. Results suggest the full B-YAACQ may not be a generalizable measure among racial/ethnic minority students. Future college drinking intervention and prevention efforts may need to be culturally tailored to address blackout and sexual consequences among racial/ethnic minority students.