HIGHLIGHTING THE NEED FOR CULTURE-SPECIFIC PREVENTATIVE INTERVENTIONS: AN EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FACTORS BEHIND THE ALCOHOL HABITS OF ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how racial stereotypes, such as the model minority stereotype, are contributing to the continued exclusion of Asian Americans in conversations concerning public health issues like alcohol use. The paper elaborates on potential reasons for the continued overlook of this subpopulation in the United States, highlights the overlooked diversity within the Asian American community, and points out the reality of negative repercussions of alcohol use and treatment barriers within this community. The paper emphasizes the need to shift away from reactive treatment care and towards culture-specific preventative interventions and treatments. Specifically, the paper explains why preventative interventions for Asian American college students can discourage both short-and-long term harm caused by alcohol use and highlights key individual and environmental factors to consider when creating preventative interventions and treatments.

With the growing need for culture-specific preventative treatments for alcohol use, nuanced explorations of the relationships between environmental and individual factors for Asian American college students is needed to better understand alcohol initiation and endorsement among this understudied population. As such, the goal of the current study was to examine the relationships between social identity stereotypes, descriptive norms surrounding alcohol use, and social media usage to see how their interactions influenced Asian American college student’s alcohol use. The current study confirmed that descriptive norms surrounding alcohol mediated the relationship between social media alcohol exposure and alcohol use. Additionally, generation status was found to be a significant individual factor that cannot be overlooked when creating treatment or programming for this population. The study highlights the importance and need for disaggregated Asian American data to develop a nuanced understanding of the epidemiology for alcohol use within this population. Practical implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.