Pressure to Acculturate Amplifies Coping-Depression Associations With Alcohol Consequences in Hispanic/Latino College Students.

BACKGROUND: Hispanic/Latino American college students report elevated rates of alcohol use and negative alcohol-related consequences compared to non-Hispanic/Latino white students. As cultural experiences and coping motives (i.e., drinking to manage negative emotions) can influence alcohol outcomes in Hispanic/Latino Americans, the current study examined how the interplay of acculturative stress and coping motives are related to alcohol use and negative alcohol-related consequences among Hispanic/Latino American college students. METHOD: =1,131; ages 18-25) completed cross-sectional measures on acculturative stress, coping motives, alcohol use, and negative alcohol-related consequences. We estimated path models to examine the moderating effect of two domains of acculturative stress (i.e., pressure to acculturate and pressure against acculturation) on the associations between the two coping motives (i.e., drinking to cope with anxiety and depressive symptoms) and the alcohol outcomes, while adjusting for theoretically relevant covariates (i.e., age, gender, fraternity/sorority membership, athletic involvement, general college stress). RESULTS: There was a significant interaction between coping-depression motives and pressure to acculturate, such that the positive relationship between the two was stronger among students experiencing higher levels of pressure to acculturate. No other significant interactions emerged. Additionally, both coping-anxiety and coping-depression motives showed significant, positive direct effects on negative alcohol-related consequences. CONCLUSIONS: The current study identified a specific domain of acculturative stress (pressure to acculturate) that intensifies the association between drinking to cope with depressive symptoms and more negative alcohol-related consequences among Hispanic/Latino American college students.