Using gender and friend confidant support to segment Asian American adults who use alcohol to cope with everyday discrimination

Background/Significance: Prevention campaigns can counter the increasing trend of alcohol use among Asian American adults. Campaigns may be more effective by segmenting the target audience and tailoring the strategy toward different age and ethnic/national subgroups, an important issue in this population. Objective/Purpose: This study examined how Asian American adults differed according to everyday discrimination, gender, friend confidant support, and alcohol use. Methods: A secondary analysis of data from a multistage probability sample of 2,095 Asian Americans aged 18 years and older in the U.S. in the 2002 to 2003 cross-sectional National Latino and Asian American Study. Drawing from the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the Stress-Buffering Model we tested the potential buffering effect of family and friend support on problematic alcohol use using logistic regression analysis incorporating design effects and adjusting for potential confounding variables. Results: A significant interaction was found between gender, friend confidant support, and everyday discrimination wherein females with a high level of friend confidant support and everyday discrimination reported higher levels of risky drinking behavior. Males had higher levels of risky drinking than females. Everyday discrimination, Filipino status, and third generation were significant positive predictors of alcohol use. Discussion/Conclusions: Asian American adults vary in their response to everyday discrimination. Campaigns can focus on males and females with a high level of friend confidant support, encouraging healthy ways of coping with everyday discrimination over alcohol use. Other at-risk subgroups include Filipino and third generation Asian Americans.