AMERICAN-INDIAN ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL INVOLVEMENT AND ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION

Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to explore the relationship between American Indian ethnic identification and alcoho l involvement. The subject pool was comprised of 202 American Indian a dolescents (114 females, 88 males). Measures of ethnic identity, frequ ency and style of alcohol use, peer alcohol associations, and family s anctions against alcohol were obtained through survey research. Result s of the model analysis revealed that while peer alcohol associations significantly predicted alcohol involvement for both males and females , and family sanctions against alcohol were predictive for the females in the sample, ethnic identity did not predict alcohol involvement, d irectly or indirectly, for either males nor females. Results are discu ssed in terms of past theoretical explanations of American Indian yout h involvement with alcohol.