Study: Alcoholism a Problem among Recently Immigrated Hispanic Youth

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Adapting to life in the United States causes high levels of stress in Hispanic immigrant youth, who frequently turn to alcohol, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence and reported by Voxxi News, indicates that recently immigrated Hispanic youth often report struggling with self-identity and stress as they try to find “a balance between cultural roots and their new environment.”

“Enduring bicultural stress during adolescence—a vulnerable developmental phase in which adolescents are still forming their own identity—places them at risk for participation in risk behaviors,” the study’s lead author, Assaf Oshri of the University of Georgia, told Medical XPress. “We found that bicultural stress disrupts their identity consolidation over time, which leads to increased expectations that getting engaged with alcohol use would help them alleviate or cope with this stress.”

The researchers, who studied 302 Hispanics in Miami and Los Angeles, said peak alcohol use tends to occur between the ages of 18-20.

They hope findings can help create cutlurally relevant substance abuse prevention programs.

“There’s also a real-world implication here about how prevention and intervention program designers should consider designing their curriculum,” Josephine Kwon, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, told Medical XPress. They should “take into account the potential of bicultural stress to negatively impact the development of self-processes and deal with that underlying issue.”