Comments on "Gender, ethnic, age, and relationship differences in non-traditional college student alcohol...

The purpose of these comments is to serve as a reaction to an article by Stephanie Babb, Cynthia Stewart, and Christine Bachman of the University of Houston-Downtown. The article is ambitiously titled "Gender, Ethnic, Age, and Relationship Differences in Non-Traditional College Students' Alcohol Consumption: A Tri-Ethnic Study" and is published in this issue of the Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse. These comments are not intended to be a definitive response to all of the possible points raised by the authors of the article; rather they are reflective of the personal views of an addiction professional who has been active in the field for several years, particularly involved with efforts directed at substance use by non-traditional college students, and who has published previously on related topics. It is only possible to react to a few specific issues raised by the article; another commentator or a peer reviewer would probably address a myriad other areas. Indeed, several other topics of concern could have been addressed, but I felt it prudent and hopefully more productive to keep my comments more narrowly focused on some of the matters that seemed more pressing.