Recent developments in alcoholism:ethnicity

Advances in alcohol and ethnicity epidemiology during the past decade include greater emphasis on intraethnic variation, factors influencing drinking behavior, and building conceptual models. Despite progress, most research continues to focus on ethnicity/race as a demographic variable and few studies investigate ethnic hypotheses. Although prevention and treatment of alcoholic disorders in ethnic groups have been dealt with extensively in the clinical and ethnographic literature, little rigorous research has been conducted. The key issue in this area involves the extent to which prevention and treatment programming needs to be ethnically responsive in order to be effective. The very little empirical literature that exists on this topic suggests that answers will not be simple and will vary according to aspects of acculturation status and ethnohistorical factors. The most important development during the past 10 years has undoubtedly been the federal regulatory encouragement of research on the major ethnic groups of the United States.