THE ROLE OF ETHNIC VERSUS NONETHNIC SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS IN SUBSTANCE USE AND MISUSE

Substance use research in the United States has focused on ethnicity/r ace to the detriment of studying the role of nonethnic sociocultural f actors. Reliance on politically defined ethnic categories has not adde d to knowledge on the etiology, prevalence, prevention, or treatment o f substance use and misuse. Rather it has reflected the preoccupation with race/ethnicity in the larger United States society and has contri buted to further stereotyping of non-European ethnic groups. Ethnicity serves as a proxy for a number of sociocultural factors (e.g., socioe conomic status) that are linked to substance use. To make progress in understanding substance use and misuse, researchers must move away fro m the simplistic reliance on ethnic labels to a more complex understan ding of the impact of the sociocultural variables that such labels rep resent.